[JasonC]

No, they aren't interested in commercial relations. France has lost more from private US consumer boycotting than it will ever make trading with a poor basket case dependent on Russian handouts like Syria.

They are interested in power, and in the fact that we have it. This bothers them. They therefore insist that at least we never use it, as the next best thing to taking it away.

They try to bring this about by editorial blather, elections, and by giving as much cover as possible to determined enemies of the US. If that means terrorist nutjobs with nukes, fine. Their bottom line is the US should not have power and if it has any should not use it and if it uses it must use it only in the manner they direct. And they will say anything and do anything, up to and including helping nuts nuke Chicago, to get their way in the matter.

Commerce has nothing to do with it. Nor civilization. Nor morality. Nor sanity. It is an emotional matter about their existential inadequacy that only a sense of selfrighteousness and power can temporarily allay.

[beckaz]

I don't disagree with you, of course power is always in the pic and things are more complicated than my one-line re commerce.

But their damn commercial relations (usually about nukes or chems or weapons or airliners) certainly seem at the top of their agenda. Of course, that is also a way to wield influence (or power) with those sick regimes and to please powerful domestic lobbies AND to help somewhat their sick economies where many jobs depend on those mega-concerns (often state linked or sponsored).

The other thing I'd note is that being statists, the Eurons like to keep things on govmt-to-govmnt terms (economic, cultural, bla bla bla).