In another Wall Street Journal opinion piece, could it be that Europe is missing President Bush?? Chalk up another diplomatic snub to Europe. The Administration has told the European Union that President Obama won’t attend the regular U.S.-EU confab this May in Madrid—through a leak to this newspaper on Monday. Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, whose country holds the bloc’s rotating presidency, was said to be surprised, embarrassed and incensed by the slight.
Which makes us wonder: Can’t Europe take a hint?
One of Mr. Obama’s first, er, diplomatic acts was to return the bust of Winston Churchill in the White House to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Later, he pulled the plug on missile defense sites in the Czech Republic and Poland without trying to inform their national leaders until late in the night. No President in recent memory has cared less for America’s alliance with Europe.
Wait wasn’t this the President who’s foreign policy experience was summed up by his grandiose speech in Berlin during the campaign? The millions of fans adulating over this man who would change American foreign policy and image throughout the world? Well they were right in that aspect.
The downgrading of Europe reflects a rational calculation. From Washington’s point of view, the world’s rising powers are Brazil, China, India and others in the Asia-Pacific region. The “special relationship” with Britain and close ties with the Central European allies remain critical to U.S. security, but those can be nurtured apart from the EU.
This has all been painfully sobering for Continentals who hailed the Obama ascendancy. Their infatuation with him was always in part a case of projection. Europe thought it had the first modern President eager to make the Old World an equal partner in running the planet.
Europe may soon realize that George W. Bush could well be the last trans-Atlantic President eager to cultivate friendships with European leaders, prioritize the free Continent over others, and even attend all the summits the Europeans threw his way. You can’t say history lacks a sense of irony.
I don’t think much more needs to be said than what was in this piece.
