It's really phenomenal to think about how Cheney and Bush took the enormous sympathy for the United States all over the world after the 9/11 attack- though notably cooler in Latin America than in the rest of the world - and turned it into widespread hostility.
Relations between Russia and the West, both the US and the EU, are going into the tank. Look! Over there! John Edwards is getting a new haircut! So we can hardly expect our "press corps" to pay excessive attention to trivia like all the progress made in Western relations with Russis since the end of the Cold War being wiped out. How boring for the priests and ministers of High Broderism. Much more pleasant to worry about whethre Barack Obama is sufficiently or excessively black.
Still, the real world moves on, even when David Broder fails to notice it:
Merkel vor schwierigem EU-Russland-Gipfel dpa/Yahoo! Nachrichten 17.05.2007
Hoffen auf das Wunder an der Wolga von Matthias Schepp Spiegel Online 17.05.07
Partnerschaft von Russland und EU wichtig AFP/Yahoo! Nachrichten 17.05.2007
Transatlantische Wirtschaftspartnerschaft Der Stnndard 30.04.07
Polen betont Krise mit Russland AFP/Yahoo! Nachrichten 17.05.2007
Tensions high, expectations low for Russia-EU talks by Louis Charbonneau Reuters/Washington Post 05/16/07.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is trying to position Germany as the new leading intermediary between the US and Europe: Staunen - dreimal Spiegel Online 01.05.07 von Gabor Steingart. I'm guessing that the German government is really hoping to position itself to work with a more sensible US government beginning in January 2009. Because after all that's happened, it's difficult to believe that Merkel's Grand Coalition government can seriously imagine that "cooperation" means anything to the Cheney-Bush administration other than Dear Leader Bush gives the orders, the "allied" government does what it's total. In any case, obeying orders from the Cheney-Bush government involves a lot of problems: Germany rethinks its Afghan presence by Mariah Blake Christian Science Monitor 03/22/07.
The pathetic Tony Blair apparently intends to leave office in full snivel mode, reaffirming once again his subservience to the Cheney-Bush regime: Blair y Bush reafirman la alianza entre Londres y Washington El País 17.05.2007.
Surely it hasn't escaped the notice of the Merkel government that part of the deal between Blair and Dear Leader Bush was that Blair would support Cheney's war of aggression against Iraq, then Cheney and Bush would push hard for an Israeli-Palestinian settlement. Blair followed orders, and Bush spit in his face on his side of the deal. And we see the results anew just this week: Israel bombardea objetivos de Hamás en Gaza en represalia por los últimos ataques de milicianos palestinos El País 17.05.2007; Kämpfe im Gazastreifen eskalieren Frankfurter Rundschau 17.05.07..
And how is that glorious war of liberation in Iraq going? According to the British Chatham House research institute, the place is on the verge of collapse: Irak vor dem Kollaps Süddeutsche Zeitung 17.05.07; 'Collapse and Fragmentation' for Iraq Spiegel International 17.05.07.
Blair tied himself and his country to Bush's Iraq War, apparently because British leaders decided after the Suez crisis back during the Eisenhower administration that they would not allow themselves to be on a different side than the United States in any major foreign policy issue again and Blair was committed to carrying on that tradition, even to the point of leading one of the most cynical foreign policy moves in the long history of British diplomatic cynicism. But cynicism wasn't enough to conquer Iraq.
Cheney, Bush: Ya'll are doin' a heckuva job!
Tags: angela merkel, bush administration, tony blair
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