This is Radio Europe II
Le Chagrin et La Pitié
From my conversations here, most of our European friends (Note: I am in the Chocolate-Making Zone) feel pity and vexation about the plight of US Liberals. No one wants America's economic engine to fail. Everyone I meet between 50 and 80 remembers how America used to be: most are retired engineers and businessmen who remember fondly their visits to Chicago and Buffalo and New York of a bygone era but they grit their teeth every morning and evening as they read the news.
Across the age spectrum, I haven't met a single individual who approves of Bush. How many ways can you translate, _appalled_ ? From retirees to waitresses to taxi drivers to high-tech executives to young professionals, opinion is unanimous. It is as if Europe was counting on the US as a partner and they now realize that we are travelling down separate paths. Europe must go it alone. They know it is going to be tough--they quaver at the right-wing genies emerging in every parliament, liberated by the Republicans and possibly on the take.
Here was today's conversation:
Nur: Our Congress should cancel the War Powers transferred to Bush since there were never any WMDs.
Béart: How can they cancel an illegality? Only your Congress has the right to declare war.
That's it. How can we escape from the accomplices and the enablers?
From my conversations here, most of our European friends (Note: I am in the Chocolate-Making Zone) feel pity and vexation about the plight of US Liberals. No one wants America's economic engine to fail. Everyone I meet between 50 and 80 remembers how America used to be: most are retired engineers and businessmen who remember fondly their visits to Chicago and Buffalo and New York of a bygone era but they grit their teeth every morning and evening as they read the news.
Across the age spectrum, I haven't met a single individual who approves of Bush. How many ways can you translate, _appalled_ ? From retirees to waitresses to taxi drivers to high-tech executives to young professionals, opinion is unanimous. It is as if Europe was counting on the US as a partner and they now realize that we are travelling down separate paths. Europe must go it alone. They know it is going to be tough--they quaver at the right-wing genies emerging in every parliament, liberated by the Republicans and possibly on the take.
Here was today's conversation:
Nur: Our Congress should cancel the War Powers transferred to Bush since there were never any WMDs.
Béart: How can they cancel an illegality? Only your Congress has the right to declare war.
That's it. How can we escape from the accomplices and the enablers?
posted by Nur-al-Cubicle | 12:18 PM
1 Comments:
As an european I have the same perception about the general judgment about Bush in europe.
But let me be the devil's advocate:
Chirac - elected by french - is supporting bush's administration on Syria issue. How do people react on that? They accept it, as far as I know.
Tony Blair - according to recent polls - is probably going to win next elections... how can we explain that?
Socrates has won recent elections in portugal but he never clearly opposed to invasion and war in irak. 80% of portuguese citizens were against war and made that clear in several street demonstrations.
How do we explain this? For me it's exactly the same phenomenon that led to bush's reelection.
"we are travelling down separate paths"...yes and no; citizens (still a minority) are travelling down separate paths from their governments...european govs. and US gov? Not really, not substantially.
They can collide in particular interests but essentially the mechanisms of power - the logic of control, supremacy, domination - are exactly the same.
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