Not Just Name-Calling

The Bush administration must take urgent steps to win back the support of Europeans who see Washington as a threat to world peace

NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

Nov. 5 — Which country do you think is the greatest threat to world security? If you named any member of the “axis of evil”—a nuclear-armed North Korea, a terrorist-sponsoring Iran or a lawless Iraq—you’d have come close to our friends across the Atlantic. According to a European Union poll of more than 7,500 Europeans, more than half (some 52 per cent) placed the founding members of the so-called axis close to the top of their list of threats to the planet.

ONLY THEY ADDED a couple of nations to join the ranks of the world’s greatest evildoers. Precisely the same number of Europeans said America was a threat to world peace, ranking the Bush administration alongside Kim Jong Il’s tyranny in Pyongyang and the hard-line theocracy of Tehran.

More...

KEY QUOTES:

"Shocking as they are, these numbers are not an excuse to beat up our favorite European stereotypes. There was a time when it was easy to dismiss the rest of the world as a bunch of spineless and spoiled children, hiding under America’s security umbrella while throwing hissy fits at the adults in Washington."

"That time is long gone. The European poll shows this dispute has gone far beyond name-calling. What started out as a little overheated rhetoric has grown into a full-blown crisis that threatens U.S. policy across the world. And we’re not just talking about Iraq."

"In Latin America, the warning signs about U.S. policy are lit up across the continent. In Bolivia, the pro-American president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was toppled after a month of street protests and violent clashes. One of his biggest political weaknesses: his support for U.S. policy on energy and drugs. In Colombia, the ardently pro-American president Alvaro Uribe took a beating in the polls last week, leading to the election of a former communist as mayor of the capital Bogota. And in Brazil, President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva effectively torpedoed U.S. trade policy by forcing the collapse of the world trade talks in Cancun two months ago. As in Europe, political leaders in Latin America are finding it costly to support Washington while the critics of the Bush administration are prospering."

"Which brings us back to our European friends and their thoughts on Iraq. As in America’s backyard, anti-Bush feeling has gone far beyond a knee-jerk reaction to U.S. policy. It now feeds into domestic politics and has grown into one of the biggest obstacles to what Washington wants to do next."

"But it’s also true that, according to the European poll, 79 per cent of Spanish people believe the war in Iraq was unjustified."

"The Bush administration runs the risk of a total collapse in political support in Europe."

"Europe is not a lost cause, but it could become one if we allow transatlantic relations to continue to fall off a cliff. Washington still needs to work with its European allies to push its agenda forward—whether it’s raising cash for Iraq and pressuring Iran to give up its nukes. And that means doing a better job of explaining U.S. policy to them, and thinking creatively about other policies that our allies can support. It’s called diplomacy, and as the European poll shows, both sides of the Atlantic are failing miserably at it."