Took the weekend off to visit the smoochie-poo in NYC. I now resume:
Is it me, or is it...odd, the way that Chirac, and the Canadians, and the EU, are suddenly amenable to our Middle East policy? I suspect one of two possibilities:
1. The power of Europe to resist our imperial might is limited. When they discovered that we would not be shamed from a warlike response to 9/11, they meekly knuckled under. Bush's re-election nailed this coffin shut.
2. The sneaking suspicion that Iraq has not been an unmitigated disaster and, indeed, has become a qualified success has led them to look for places on the bandwagon. Ever pragmatic, and realizing that their own security situations has so far not worsened, and could possibly improve, Europe cautiously files in behind.
It would be easy to say, both, but I suspect it's more the latter than the former. The 2004 election would have meant nothing if Iraq had come apart like 1968 South Vietnam. Let's not underestimate the images of blue-fingered Iraqis defying the bringers of blood. I don't think Europe has ever doubted the value of democratizing the Middle East, merely the likelihood of its success. One can hardly blame them, given the testimony of human history, for that.
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