Krauthammer finds what Obama said to be "disgraceful".
I find right wingers anger at Obama's comments regarding America's failure to appreciate Europe simply hysterical.
Krauthammer finds it "disgraceful", but Krauthammer fails to realise that he is the perfect example of the arrogance of which Obama spoke.
He decries Europe as "sucking on our tit for sixty years" (is there a better example of American arrogance than that remark?) implying that Europe spends pennies on defence whilst the US spends billions, whilst ignoring the fact that this situation exists at America's insistence.
This was Rumsfeld's reaction to the news that Europe might develop a European army:
Donald Rumsfeld: 'I personally will be watching carefully to see howThe US have always insisted that their military superiority cannot be challenged by Europe which is why Krauthammer's outrage is such a piece of hypocritical bullshit.
things evolve.'
In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Rumsfeld warns that the plans
could "inject instability" into the Nato alliance and "put at risk
something that is very special". It is the first detailed public
statement on the subject by a senior American politician since Mr Blair
returned from Camp David last month claiming that President Bush had
agreed to support the European "army".
Mr Rumsfeld makes clear that the new Republican administration remains
deeply concerned about the project. Invited to confirm that he is
"relaxed" about the European Union's proposals, Mr Rumsfeld
conspicuously declines to do so.
Mr Rumsfeld says: "I personally will be watching carefully to see how
things evolve, because we have so much at stake with that [Nato]
alliance. We need to be vigilant to see that we don't do anything that
could inject an instability into the alliance."
You cannot demand that Nato is sufficient for Europe's defence and then attack Europe when they accept you at your word.
But what is really outraging Krauthammer is that Obama is criticising the attitude of the Bush administration and that he is doing so on foreign soil. Perhaps he is forgetting that criticising an American political figure on foreign soil is not without precedent.
In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.
"We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is—the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
Krauthammer is feeling outraged because Obama has called him and Bush out as the arrogant arseholes that they are. And he's right in saying that Europe loves Obama for it.
Like many Americans we, in Europe, are suckers for the truth. And, as I made clear at the time, we loved the fact that he called us out as well.
Europe has waited for the past eight years to hear an American president chide us and yet tell us that he values our opinion.Obama wasn't scoring cheap points. Quite the opposite. He was demanding that the rest of us stop scoring them. And we appreciated that.
No comments:
Post a Comment