A Short Honeymoon With Europe

America under Barack Obama is taking a long, cold look at its transatlantic relations - Telegraph:

"So long as it was those rough and ready cowboys George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld who were condemning it, Old Europe could afford to smirk – and its loathing was lapped up enthusiastically (and put to good use) by all those American liberals who saw the Bush administration as a crass international embarrassment. But now Europe has got the US president of its dreams and it has given him nothing in return for his pious declarations of global humility. So maybe, thinks mainstream America, Mr Rumsfeld was right all along about those cynical, self-serving Old World powers whose leaders seem not to understand that they have rendered themselves irrelevant by their refusal to help defend Western values militarily, and by their unsustainable economic policies which will see them marginalised in the global market place."

This opinion piece from the UK's Telegraph lays it right out. Being in the good graces of Europe has about as much value to the US as a warm mug of spit. The President has nothing to show for his Barack Obama - Being America Means Always Having to Say You're Sorry Tour of the Continent.

Obama's Unilateralist Afghan Policy

The World from Berlin: Success or Failure in Afghanistan Will Depend on Americans - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International:

"'If Obama had any illusions whatsoever when he took office about whether his partners would abandon their increasing reserve on the issue of Afghanistan, then those have been buried by now. Of course, the emissaries he sent to the region and to his partners have told him that by now. Germany may be willing to keep its current 3,400 troops in the country, but other countries are firmly holding to their plans to withdraw. Holland will pull out 1,700 troops by
2010, and a year later Canada's 2,800-soldier contingent will return home. The success or failure on the main front in the battle against radical Islam will be determined by the US's engagement there.'"

I thought if we stopped calling them "Old Europe" and made nice to them, our "allies" were supposed to be more supportive of our foreign policy. Wasn't Afghanistan the war we all agreed upon?

Of course, no amount of diplomacy, cajoling, cow-towing, or conferring with the Europeans can elicit any significant contribution from them. They lack the backbone and the resources to be of any help. They long ago gave up on funding a meaningful defense. Their money has been all sucked up by their welfare state economies. And their resolve has been sapped by the nihilism that permeates their cultures.

At current course and speed, that'll be us in another 10 years.

Obama Administration Pursuing Unilateralist Economic Policy

Gordon Brown retreats on Budget spending spree - Telegraph:

"Gordon Brown seemed to heed warnings about the health of the Britain's public finances as he retreated from plans for a massive spending package to revive the economy in next month's Budget."

Pres. Obama's only major ally in the push for continued massive stimulus has thrown in the towel, apparently convinced that there is actually such a thing as spending too much money you don't have. When will this Cowboy administration get in step with our European allies and stop trying to go it alone?