I was visiting in Austria and Germany a couple of weeks after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. I remember thinking that with the incredible outpouring of sympathy for the United States, Americans might never be so popular in Europe again as they were at that particular moment.
I don't mean that people were walking up to me on the street and saying "Americans are wonderful" or anything. (Yeah, like that's ever gonna happen!)
But the press coverage was positive for the US. And individuals were genuinely sympathetic and understood that the Americans felt collectively attacked.
While I was there, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to the German Parliament. In fluent German. Putin had been a KGB officer at the Russian consulate in Dresden during the Communist days in East Germany. He knows German society and politics, and he speaks their language (literally). His visit to Germany, including a stop to see his old landlady in Dresden, got sympathetic press coverage.
I thought at the time that if the Bush Administration somehow went back to their pre-9/11 anti-Europe track in foreign policy, that Putin's visit should be a very symbolic reminder that the world - and Europe in particular - has changed a great deal since the fall of the Soviet Union. Europe does have other options than to follow America's lead. As we've seen over the last year.
I thought of that today when I saw this item in Der Spiegel (my translation):
The old alliance is the new one. Russia, France and Germany - the opponents of the Iraq War - are increasing the pressure on Bush's government, which has gotten itself into a difficult situation, to turn over power in Iraq to a civilian administration.
No one disputes that the US is militarily the most powerful country in the world. But are we powerful enough to go blast up Iraq and then patch things up and get most of our troops back out of there in a month or two? Obviously not.
It would be foolish to interpret the Russian-French-German position as hostility to the US. On the contrary, they're offering Bush political cover for cutting his losses in Iraq, if he's willing and able to take it. But it's a reminder that even the most powerful nation in the world still needs good, old-fashioned, practical diplomacy. Not just bluster and threats.
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