Europe, America and the new (pseudo-) Cold War

Continuing with the comments from the last post, the 03/29/04 print edition of Business Week has a lead article which is the cover story for the European edition called "Fighting a New Cold War." It's by Bruce Nussbaum, who does some decent writing on foreign policy.

And this one does have some clear-headed moments, rejecting the fantasies of the "neoconservative" dreamers:

It is increasingly clear that the Bush Administration's unilateralism in Iraq created a major diversion from the larger war against terrorism and a major division among the allies in fighting it. The September 11 World Trade Center catastrophe and the war in Afghanistan brought the U.S. and Europe as close as they have ever been in fighting a common enemy. But the White House's adherence to a one-sided foreign policy led the U.S. into Iraq without the legitimacy of either NATO, the U.N., or a coalition of all the major nations that have stood with America in times past. Unilateralism, not terrorism, separated Europe from America.

But dreamy Cold War nostalgia isn't going to fix that. This section of the article gives a flavor of the "new Cold War" dream:

The apt analogy is the Cold War. It is time to think not in terms of specific tactics, policies, or battles but in terms of an enduring campaign with an overarching theme that unites America and its allies against a common enemy. The defeat of communism was accomplished by a combination of military, political, and economic policies over a long period. From the time the Soviet Union lowered an Iron Curtain across Europe until the day the Berlin Wall fell, nearly half a century passed. The U.S. pumped billions into Western Europe through the Marshall Plan, generating economic growth and jobs to curb the immense power of Communist Parties in France and Italy and keep them from taking over. The Truman Doctrine provided U.S. military aid to Greece to defeat communist insurgents. Lest we forget, battles large and small raged around the globe. Some were won, some lost.

If nostalgia could beat The Terrorists, we would have already won.