This was written well before September 11, 2001. While commerce continues across the Atlantic there WTC opened cracks in the system. There is now a political element. Europe gave all its moral support to the United States war on Afghanistan. It was shocked when the U.S. carried the war to Iraq.
For the moment the UofH offers (mostly) daily READING NOTES on what it half-joking calls: "Eur vs U.S.". This because the differences between their socio-economic systems, once seemingly subject to a sort of Hegelian synthesis, are now frequently accentuated.
The READING NOTES are from daily newspapers with the date and source noted. At another date we will give you a full explanation of these.
Beginning: READING NOTES: Currently: 31.01.04 - 05.01.04.
January 31, 2004 (NYT) (Jcstart) [] Much of Europe Is Derisive About Report on Iraqi Arms By CRAIG S. SMITH
PARIS, Jan. 30 - Much of Europe has given a collective snort to the testimony by David Kay, the former chief United States weapons inspector, that there probably were no illicit weapons in Iraq before the United States-led war there.
"There is a kind of cynicism here," said Dominique Moïsi, a political analyst in Paris. "So the Americans lied to their people and to us and maybe to themselves. That's exactly what we already thought." … "Especially in France, there is a feeling that if the David Kay report is right," Mr. Dominique Moïsi said. "How can the BBC be so severely punished for revealing what was ultimately true?"
Some German media scoffed at the purported independence of the Hutton report, which led to the resignations of the BBC's board chairman, Gavyn Davies its director general, Greg Dyke, and Andrew Gilligan, the reporter of the original account.
"Hutton has been a servant to the crown all his life; he always knows what his duty is," read an editorial in Friday's Die Tageszeitung, a national newspaper published in Berlin. It likened Lord Hutton's role to "a football team putting up their own manager as referee and then celebrating a win on dubious penalties."
January 29, 2004 (NYT) (Jcstart) [Cheney eats U.N. crow + Chirac too]
OP-ED COLUMNIST Elephants Can't Fly By THOMAS FRIEDMAN
DAVOS, Switzerland - A year ago, at the Davos World Economic Forum, I saw elephants fly. Yes, sir, right here in the Swiss Alps I saw big ideas defying gravity. At this year's Davos forum, though, all the elephants came crashing down. Turns out elephants can't fly after all - and the world is a better place for it.
January 27, 2004 (NYT) [All]Power Struggle Underscores Blair-Chirac Rift, Book SaysBy PATRICK E. TYLER LONDON, Jan. 26 - "Tony Blair" by Philip Stephens. Strong opposition by the French president, Jacques Chirac, to the war in Iraq last spring was in part motivated by a desire to undermine Prime Minister Tony Blair in a struggle for leadership of Europe, a new book asserts.The book is based in part on reports from British intelligence in which Mr. Blair was said to have concluded and to have told close aides in confidence that Mr. Chirac was "out to get him" by opposing the American- and British-led military campaign and thus seeking to isolate Mr. Blair in Europe. Mr. Blair came to believe that "the dispute over Iraq was in fact a proxy for a much more serious contest," the account states.The book, "Tony Blair," by Philip Stephens, will be published next month by Viking, a division of Penguin Group in the United States. Excerpts were printed Monday in The Financial Times, for which Mr. Stephens is a political columnist with access to Mr. Blair and his senior aides. The assertions excerpted from the book are not attributed, however, either to Mr. Blair or his aides. The intelligence reports informed the prime minister that Mr. Chirac had decided that "Blair had usurped" Mr. Chirac's position "as the natural leader of Europe," the book states. Reacting to the publication on Monday, the prime minister's official spokesman declined to address the specific assertions in the book and said instead that it was "not the government's policy to do book reviews." The spokesman said Mr. Blair and Mr. Chirac had a "very good relationship" and would be meeting in February with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany.In Paris, Mr. Chirac's spokeswoman, Catherine Colonna, said in an e-mail message: "There will be no comment on our side."Mr. Stephens's biography of Mr. Blair reports on the intricate nature of the triangle of power among Britain, France and Germany. It also characterizes the role of Vice President Dick Cheney as "implacably opposed" to British efforts to persuade President Bush to work through the United Nations in confronting Iraq.Mr. Cheney scorned the notion that the United States needed international approval to remove Mr. Hussein. "Once we have victory in Baghdad, all the critics will look like fools," Mr. Cheney told a high ranking British official in mid-2002, the book says.When Mr. Chirac appeared to favor Mr. Schröder's opponent in German elections in 2002, Mr. Schröder traveled to London in his first postelection trip, snubbing Mr. Chirac. "The slight was not missed by Chirac," Mr. Stephens wrote. Mr. Blair "enraged" the French leader by assaulting protectionist farm policies on the Continent at the European summit meeting in October 2002.But Mr. Stephens reported that Mr. Blair missed the signals of Mr. Chirac's gathering anger. In December 2002, as the United Nations was giving Iraq a final opportunity to declare its illicit weapons, Mr. Blair met with one of Mr. Chirac's ministers in London and told him that the "good cop, bad cop" cooperation of the United States and Europe had succeeded at the United Nations in getting inspectors back into Iraq."The hawks in Washington had been obliged to compromise, and Bush had been kept in the multilateral game," Mr. Stephens wrote, adding that Mr. Blair urged the French to "more closely" coordinate with Britain as the war debate advanced.But Mr. Chirac chose a path of strong opposition. Mr. Blair regarded the French leader's strategy as an attempt to re-cement German-French cooperation and isolate Mr. Blair, Mr. Stephens wrote.Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top
January 27, 2004 (NYT) (JCstart) Poles Protest U.S. Visa Rules: We Can't Go There From HereBy JOHN DARNTON WARSAW, Jan. 25 - "It's tragic," said Wojciech Mazur, pacing nervously outside the American Embassy and peering through a fence at its blank facade. Every few seconds a side door opened to disgorge another Pole, another applicant for an American visa. The person's walk usually indicated whether one had been granted.
January 27, 2004 (NYT) (Jcstart) [] Cheney Unusually Visible as He Mends Fences in Europe By ERIC SCHMITT NETTUNO, Italy, Jan. 26 - Vice President Dick Cheney, on a five-day trip through Switzerland and Italy, is stepping out of his self-imposed seclusion and into what administration officials and political analysts say is a calculated election-year makeover to temper his hard-line image at home and abroad. Mr. Cheney, who usually shuns the media, has given a spate of radio and newspaper interviews in the last month. This European trip is only his second overseas in the last three years, the first being a visit to the Persian Gulf in early 2002 to build support for toppling Saddam Hussein. He invited eight journalists to join him aboard Air Force Two, a military version of a 757 jetliner.
(26.01.04) (BD) The amount of money spent by tourists visiting France as registered by the balance of payments fell 5.4 percent in 2003 from 2002 to about 14.9 billion euros (18.7 billion dollars), junior Tourism Minister Leon Bertrand said on Monday.
A statement issued at the end of conference in Mexico of French travel agents said the number of foreign tourists visiting France slipped to just under 75 million last year from 77 million in 2002. Tourism = 7% PIL. Ascribed to 'Iraq war' and SARS.
(17.01.04) (F) LET: U.K. re: Buruma: 'many Europeans mistakenly perceive American fundamentalist conservatism as a form of neo-fascism'.
(16.01.04) (F) OP: Philip Stephens - 'Monnet vision has reached its limits. The Maastricht agreement to create the euro was the high-water mark to the drive to integration.' Title: I read your 16.01.04 article 'Europe clings to the past and recoils from the future' with interest. To me the project I proposed last summer (please see the attached file) in the FT might get Europe moving again in a way that current bickering would solve itself in the margins, as most petty things often do. In his spirited (half-comic) press-conference defense of Vladimir Putin, Berlusconi did push the boat out. The triumvirate you suggest, of Britain, France and Germany, could surely carry it forward. I have a few further thoughts on the matter and would be happy to pass them on to your without attribution. As grist as it were.
(16.01.04) (F) OP: Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz - Polish For Min: Getting EU back on track.
(16.01.04) (W) OP: Ilan Berman & Artem Agoulnik - VP American Foreign Policy Council & Council's Russia and Eurasia Program associate. DC/MOS quiet power plays in X-Soviet Union.
(16.01.04) (S) ANK: ?: Prodi - 1st EU Pres visit since '63 - End of year accession talx begin.
(15.01.04) (W) WP: OP: BER: Jim Hoagland: Turkey & EU: 'U.S. pushing Nato Partnership for Peace plan on IS and Islamic nations from Morocco to Afghanistan. Also: Bush puzzling delay in accepting Fr. 60th anniversay D-Day invite. 'There is also a suspicion that (Bush) will use its big initiative to deflect urgent action on the IS/Pal conflict.
(21.01.04) (NYT) (Jcstart) [State of the Union speech] State of the Union Abroad
Last night President Bush surveyed the state of his foreign policy over the past year and, unsurprisingly, gave himself high marks. In truth, while there have been achievements, the last year of war in Iraq and stubborn unilateralism on issues ranging from the use of military force to environmental policy and trade have dominated and strained America's relationships with most of the rest of the world.
(19.01.04) (NYT) (JCstart) ED: Playing Politics With D-Day
This June, for the first time, a German chancellor will attend ceremonies in Normandy marking the anniversary of D-Day. Gerhard Schröder has declared himself "very pleased" at the invitation he received from President Jacques Chirac of France to join other leaders for the 60th anniversary of the Allied landings. On the face of it, this appears to be a welcome signal that Europe has put its last great war behind it, and that the Germans are now viewed as an integral part of the European family. Ten years ago, Helmut Kohl, then chancellor of Germany, was frustrated in his efforts to secure just such an invitation.Still, there's something not quite right with this picture. It's not that the Germans need to be ceaselessly reminded of their Nazi past. Few nations in history have so sincerely and deeply looked into the evils of their past and worked as hard to come to terms with them. Germany is, and deserves to be, a full and equal partner in everything Europe does, without being made to feel that it bears a permanent taint. The trouble is that Mr. Chirac's invitation smacks more of politics than reconciliation.
(17.01.04) (NYT) (Jcstart) [] By ELAINE SCIOLINO - PARIS, Jan 16 - France is considering ways to help boost security in Iraq after the American occupation ends and sovereignty has returned to the Iraqi people, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Friday. … After meeting with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in Washington on Thursday, Ms. Alliot-Marie said she believed there was a "real willingness to turn the page on tensions between the United States and France." She added, "I really had the impression that the situation had become unfrozen and that there was a desire to resume normal relations."
(13.01.04) (W) LET: UK: Vlad Sobell re: V. Socor 09.01: Russia is making good running w/ democracy.
(13.01.04) (W) ED: On U.S. needs for Georgia in Nato.
(12.01.04) (F) (Edelman - poll) Bush acts put Europeans off American goods.
(10.01.04) (F) WKEND: Ian Buruma: (Bard) Gap between U.S./Eur. Brief IS/Pal mention - Populism comparisons interesting. Jane Kramer, B-H Lévy. "American values are not European values. What exactly there values are is not always clear. Do they derive from Judeo-Christianity, the Enlightenment, liberalism, republicanism or democracy?.
(05.01.04) (F) OP: Michael Meacher - X-Labour Environment Minister: U.S. since defeat of '01 Cheney plans - 'Securing (the) increment of imported oit - the equivalent of total current oil consumption by China and India combined - has driven an integreated U.S. oil-military strategy ever since. (P) This is, however, a fundamental weakness in this policy. Most countries targeted as a source of increased oil supplies to the U.S. are riven by deep internal conflicts, strong anti-Americanism or both. Iraq is only the 1st example of the cost....'
(05.01.04) (F) (key/ b) BRU: Raphael Minder: J leaders rap EurCom: Edgar M. Bronfman - pres World Jewish Congress - Cobi Benatoff - pre European Jewish Congress - strong knock as BRU anti-semitism seminar coming in Feb. J's pissed EU published Nov '03 poll showing 59% said IS a threat to world peace ("action") (U.S., Iran and N. Kor close 2nds) and suppressed its European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia survey on anti-Semitism in Europe 'because the study conclued that Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups were behind many of the reported incidents.' ("Inaction") + (05.01.04) (W) OP: Edgar M. Bronfman - pres World Jewish Congress - Cobi Benatoff - pre European Jewish Congress: 'Poll was flawed and dangerously inflammatory (in "purporting") to name Israel as the greatest threat to world peace.' 'censored a study that reported on the involvement Muslim minorities in incidents of mounting European anti-Semitism. Both these actions were politically movitated, demonstrating a failure of will and decency. 'The Talmud teaches that silence implies agreement and that is why we will not rest until every European parliamentarian, member state and inter-govenmental body has a copy of the report in their hands'. 'One of the reports conclusions: "One cannot deny that there exists a close link between the increase of anti-Semitism and the escalation of the Middle East conflict". The report explains that Israel's policies toward the Palestinians provide an excuse to "denounce Jews generally" throughout Europe.' "The dominating assumption of contemporary anti-Semitism is still that of a Jewish world conspiracy." (P) 'WJC '02 annual report found that after the outbreak of the 2nd intifada in Sep '00 the pattern of anti-Semitism changed dramatically and the number of physical assaults on J's, or people who resembled J's, almost doubled.' 'Anti-Semitism, the world's oldest form of racism.' 'In our lifetime, Europe also bred and exported humanity's greatest evil - a undeniable truth.'
