Posted on 06/07/2008 6:19:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
MONEY can't buy you love.
This week George W Bush flies into Europe to mark the 60th anniversary of the Marshall Plan - the massive reconstruction effort that enabled western Europe to rise to prosperity from the ashes of the second world war.
The president's European tour, which will include a visit to Belfast, comes on the back of a YouGov poll published last week that reveals the extent of European hostility towards the US.
Asked "Do you think the United States is overall a force for good or evil in today's world?", an astonishing 43% of respondents said "force for evil."
Just 27% thought the US a 'force for good'.
The poll surveyed four western European nations - Britain, France, Italy and Germany - along with Russia.
Unsurprisingly, given the talk of a new 'cold war', hostility was greatest in Russia, where only 16% thought the US was a force for good.
At the other end of the spectrum, Italians were most positive about the role of America in the world, with 49%/27% split in favour of the US. Italy still prides itself on its 'special' transatlantic relationship. Almost 16 million Italian emigrants live in the US. Back home, the older generation still tend to be grateful for the role the US played in liberating Italy during the war and for the rebuilding that came afterwards.
In Britain, which has its own 'special relationship' with the US, the figures were a statistical dead heat at 33% and 35%.
Perhaps the most striking statistics of all are those for France and Germany. Despite the efforts of chancellor Angela Merkel and president Nicolas Sarkozy to rebuild their association with the United States in the wake of the war in Iraq, both countries remain deeply suspicious of what the French disparagingly call 'L'Hypuissance'. Of French respondents, only 28% thought America a force for good, In Germany the figure was lower still at 25%.
The unpopularity of the war in Iraq notwithstanding, it is difficult to take the 'forcefor-evil' sentiment in this data seriously. For the simple truth is that Europeans everywhere, including in Ireland, remain as in love with the American way of life as ever.
For months, the media and public alike have soaked up every last detail of the enthralling US primary season. (I bet more people can instantly recall the first name of Barack Obama's wife than that of Mrs Cowen. ) Check out the European music chart this week and you'll find US stars Madonna and Justin Timberlake at No 1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Sex and the City are the headline films in European cinemas.
Indiana Jones took a whopping $24.1m in UK box office receipts in its opening four days alone.
Lest we dismiss this as 'mere' popular culture, that dominance also comes in the traffic of serious ideas. As commentators such as Timothy Garton Ash frequently point out, Washington has at its fingertips a range and depth of policy analysis, in government, think tanks, universities and the media, which London has not matched for 50 years and no other European capital, least of all the EU 'capital' of Brussels, can begin to approach.
The energy and enthusiasm of that response to American politics, culture and ideas stands in stark contrast to the apathy with which we greet European affairs.
The referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has put Ireland at the heart of a crucial European debate this month, but you would be hard-pressed to know it.
For all the posters and occasional shouting matches on TV and radio, the public reaction has been one of boredom, bemusement and disinterest. Even Matt Cooper, who has been hosting a series of debates on the treaty, says he may not bother to vote.
Eurocrats such as EU president Jose Manuel Barroso would like to blame us for any lack of interest, but the reality is that Brussels consistently fails to engage the public imagination.
America on the other hand always does. And even those who seem to view the current administration as a 'force for evil' can take comfort from the words of that great 19th-century Americaphile, Alexis de Tocqueville.
"The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, " he wrote, "but rather in her ability to repair her faults."
USA is the last best hope and the rest are corrupt and humanistic.
I've worked for a large, German-owned and based pharmaceutical company for 15 years. I deal with German visitors from HQ to our Ohio offices. They don't like us. They didn't like us long before Iraq, and they won't like us 15 years after we leave Iraq. I really believe there's still a lot of resentment from WWII, and a ton of jealousy regarding our way of life. You have to see them shop to believe it. Almost like the sacking of Rome.
Once Europe transitions to Eurabia, the dhimmified remaining non-mulsim population is gonna miss the USA big time!
We wouldn’t have had to go into Iraq if it wasn’t for Europe selling them all that weaponry and technology to make weapons. And there’s a pretty good chance they cleaned it all out before we came in too.
A little hypocritical I think.
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No European is going to admit to American exceptionalism. They are post-national, post-Christian, post-modern. They don’t understand our commitment to guns, to capital punishment (the horror!), to religion, to capitalism. That’s all so bourgeois and passe and provincial. We’re a bunch of rubes, cowboys like President Bush. Frankly, I don’t give a damn what they think.
June 6, 1944 will never be repeated.
A year ago or maybe longer, I read or heard a report where they gave a percentage of favorable articles versus unfavorable of network TV. CBS and NBC were in the single digits, while ABC had 0% positive stories about the President.
In other words, the negative rants are all the public sees.
Has any President in history been under assault as this one has??? I do believe this has been a deliberate and planned attack of the DNC, which has paid off for them in spades.
“Quite frankly Scarlett .. I don’t give a damn”
They only hate us until they’re in trouble - then they always expect America to come to the rescue - they should be more grateful that we do. But, thanks to the liberals, children are never taught of the many years America has sacrificed their best and brightest to save their sorry behinds.
And sooner or later they will come begging once again for America to pull their asses out of the embers. I hope my grandsons vote to tell them to get lost.
Most European non-gay men (there’s probably still some) are jealous of our guy’s sexual prowess during the last European war. They can vent, but it really doesn’t matter.
I agree; all the ‘self hate” of America that the main stream media pumps out, what it stands for and ANYTHING Republican or Conservative is racist, sexist, homophobic, etc., etc.... All that negativity feeds those who still watch the msm for their news.....<P Who comes to the rescue when one of Eurabias’ cities is attacked bigtime???Let them fend for themselves....
“Their media, and ours, have been on a seven year crusade to denigrate President Bush. If anyone was not in a position to see facts, rather than the constant barrage of propaganda, they would normally accept it. The old story of telling a lie often enough it becomes the truth.
A year ago or maybe longer, I read or heard a report where they gave a percentage of favorable articles versus unfavorable of network TV. CBS and NBC were in the single digits, while ABC had 0% positive stories about the President.
In other words, the negative rants are all the public sees.
Has any President in history been under assault as this one has??? I do believe this has been a deliberate and planned attack of the DNC, which has paid off for them in spades.”
The question begs an answer. . .too bad this was not a multiple choice. And sad; that ‘evil’ was even a consideration.
You are right buccaneer, this is nothing new. I remember their contempt for Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter. They called Carter “that peanut farmer.” They hated Reagan and Bush regardless of what they did, and I had at one time thought that it was only confined to academe and their media, but not anymore. I believe these numbers in these polls. They are only confirmed by what I read in their newspapers today.
There was a time when I was learning history and was quite horrified by how long it took the US to join Europe in WWII.
The more I read the more I became convinced that our fathers and grandfathers knew precisely what they were doing. Europe has heaped scorn on the US and the American people since our birth, and then they wanted help? Really? And somehow they after all of the insults and abuse they felt entitled to that help too. Really?
If something were to happen in Europe today, I wouldn’t care a bit, nor demand that our government lift a finger to help them. American lives should never be sacrificed again for any European. The place could burn to the ground for all I would care.
Eurotrash leaders were getting fat doing business with Hussein, mostly under the table. Remember "Oil for Food?" We blew their little clusterf*ck all to pieces when the Marines and US Army instituted some "Change we can believe in" over there.
The wretched feather merchants have never forgiven us.
You nailed it. Prevention is the second-most thankless job in the universe.
The great emigration from Italy to America ended abruptly with the Immigration act of 1924, 84 years ago. I doubt their are 16 million born in Italy immigrants in the US today. More like a million. The 16 million figure is more likely the number of Americans with Italian ancestry.
Richard Nixon. Worse.
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