http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/a...RTICLE_ID=43012
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Posted: February 24, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

President Bush went to Europe to launch what has been billed as a "fence-mending charm offensive" designed to heal the "transatlantic rift" existing between Washington and the leaders of the Western European Alliance.

The "rift" was caused when the Europeans refused Washington's call for assistance in both the 2003 invasion and the post-war reconstruction of Iraq.

The "rift" opened even further when post-war documents established that those same European leaders were part of a multibillion dollar ripoff of the Iraqi people and that Europe's opposition was rooted in a conspiracy to keep Saddam in power and the kickbacks flowing freely.

What was a rift became a fissure, and finally, an open chasm, when the Iraqis themselves defied European predictions that Iraqis were incapable of appreciating or grasping the concept of democratic self-rule.

After the European self-delusion of superior political and diplomatic maturity was exposed, somehow, it became the responsibility of the United States to extend its hand across the Atlantic to grasp the European hand only recently removed from the knife in Uncle Sam's back.

The European press – while less vitriolic in its criticism of President Bush than it was when it delighted in reporting the mass mooning of the president by demonstrators during a previous visit – was still critical of the American president's "unapologetic" (some said "defiant") attitude regarding the Iraq War, and continuing U.S. opposition to giving nuclear material to Iran and lifting technology sanctions against Red China.

The president tried to spin the trip as a success by pointing out that, at long last, France, Germany and Belgium have joined the alliance to reconstruct Iraq.

France agreed to aid in training Iraqi police, offering to send a single French national to Belgium, where he will serve as a coordinator in transferring unspecified "equipment" to the Iraqi security services.

Germany agreed to aid in training Iraqi troops as well, provided the Iraqis can come to the United Arab Emirates, since Germany won't send any of its troops to Iraq.

Belgium, not to be outdone by French and German cooperation, promised to send 10 driving instructors to Qatar, where, if they find any Iraqi police officers walking around, they will teach them how to drive back to Baghdad.

And tiny Estonia also made the list of European donors, offering to send a single staff officer to Iraq, equipped with a reconstruction budget of $65,000. It is unclear whether that amount is over and above, or if it includes, the staff officer's salary and expenses. (But at least Belgium can brag it has [a] troop on the ground in Iraq.)

Overall, as a consequence of President Bush's fence-mending tour, the assembled heads of the European Community met at NATO headquarters to announce a joint pledge of just over $5 million to offset America's $5 billion commitment to aid the Iraqi people.

Given the price tag for security and travel for the president and his entourage, the E.U. pledge should come to just about half what it cost the United States to ask for it.

The E.U.'s offer afforded the president the chance to mention in his speech that Europe was finally on board and committed to the Iraqi democratization effort – and the healing of the "transatlantic rift" – permitting him the use of the word "alliance" more than a dozen times in a single speech.

The president also took the occasion to prove that he is as adept at backstabbing as any French leader, garnering applause from his audience when he called upon Israel to ensure the Palestinians be granted a "contiguous" state, saying, "a state of scattered territories will not work."

By that logic, Canada should agree to let the United States annex British Columbia so Alaska can become part of a "contiguous" United States. (But we'd still have the difficulty of attaching Hawaii. A bridge, maybe?)

But logic need not apply when addressing the U.S.-E.U. "relationship" since any application of logic to that equation would dictate that first, there must be an identifiable relationship to address.

(If there is any historical equivalent to the relationship as it exists now, it most closely resembles the relationship between Britain's Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler following the conclusion of the 1938 Munich agreement.)

Europe has made no secret of its intention to establish itself as a viable contender for the title of global superpower, but, as was proved during the Cold War, there is only room for one superpower on earth at any given time. And if the Europeans have their way, it won't be headquartered in Washington.

Another American president, Abraham Lincoln, once famously observed, "You can fool some of the people, some of the time, but not all of the people, all of the time." Evidently, "the people" used to be a lot smarter then than they are now.