And we see Doctor Krauthammer, this morning; [1]
[2]When the Democratic presidential candidates pause from beating Hillary with a stick, they join in unison to pronounce the Democratic pieties, chief among which is that George Bush [3] has left our alliances in ruins. As Clinton puts it, we have “alienated our friends,” must “rebuild our alliances” and “restore our standing in the world.” That’s mild. The others describe Bush as having a scorched-earth foreign policy that has left us reviled and isolated in the world.
…
France [4] has a new president who is breaking not just with the anti-Americanism of the Chirac era but also with 50 years of Fifth Republic orthodoxy that defined French greatness as operating in counterpoise to America. Nicolas Sarkozy [5]‘s trip last week to the United States was marked by a highly successful White House [6] visit and a rousing speech to Congress in which he not only called America “the greatest nation in the world” (how many leaders of any country say that about another?) but also pledged solidarity with the United States on Afghanistan [7], Iran [8], Lebanon [9], the Middle East [10] and nuclear nonproliferation. This just a few months after he sent his foreign minister to Iraq to signal an openness to cooperation and an end to Chirac’s reflexive obstructionism.
That’s France. In Germany [11], Gerhard Schroeder is long gone, voted out of office and into a cozy retirement as Putin’s concubine at Gazprom [12]. His successor is the decidedly pro-American Angela Merkel [13], who concluded an unusually warm visit with Bush this week.
All this, beyond the ken of Democrats, is duly noted by new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown [14], who in an interview with Sky News on Sunday remarked on “the great change that is taking place,” namely “that France and Germany and the European Union [15] are also moving more closely with America.”
Indeed, the situation has gotten SO chummy with old Europe and the US, that Brown is finding himself playing catch-up with Germany and France, in terms of trying to stay in the good graces of the US.
Much like the “Failed policy in Iraq” meme I remarked on this morning [16], this other meme offered by the left about how we’re now internationally isolated because of Bush White House Policy, simply does not mesh with the facts. But as with the successes in Iraq, the foreign policy victories, are being ignored, because it doesn’t mesh with the image the left wants projected.
At some point, however, these successes are going to be recognized… if not by the press, then by the people. Such a recognition already happening may well explain why there is such perceived split between the pols and the press…. and the people.
The question which remains is, will this recognition play into voting choices come a year from now?
BBCT: Memeorandum
Update: (Bit)
Soccer Dad [17]comments:
I’m sure that the surge helps America’s standing with international relations, but I don’t buy that it’s the cause of America’s newfound friends.
I don’t, either. Not directly, at least. But contrary to the usual arguments, I think it can fairly be said that Iraq, either pre-surge or post-surge, was not the reason for the Anti-Americanism of Chirac, and Schroeder. It merely provided an excuse that their left flanks would buy into. By the same token, with Iraq being won, it’s a lot harder to argue against the US, too… our success per se’ in Iraq isn’t the root cause of France and Germany re-discovering their old friend, America.
I want to examine at some length, this weekend… for one thing because I’m just now going over the Sarkozy speech to the joint session, the other day. But I’d like you to consider something; How is it that Sarkozy and Merkle got elected? Clearly, the people in those countries had enough of the left there… including, one presumes, the anti-Americanism.
Gaius at Blue Crab [18] gets it right when he says:
The resurgence of a belligerent Russia and an increasingly powerful China are part and parcel to the strengthening ties with allies. This is not a new thing. Part of the reason nations felt they could display some anti-Americanism was because there were few external threats. Now Russia, China and a soon-to-be nuclear armed Iran are changing the realpolitik once again.
I don’t know as I’d leave the terms of the description quite so stark. THe connection is not quite so direct as that. Certainly, the resurgence of the Bear feeds into the new positioning. But would they be snuggling up with us again, if the US were not considered trustworthy?
Here’s the point I’m making, here… Had we withdrawn, as the left here in the States has been demanding we do, had we surrendered Iraq to AlQueida, as the Democrats are feverishly working toward, would the French and the Germans considered us to be a worthwhile partner? I think not. They rightly would have withheld their trust… our position in the world would have been as greatly diminished as they tried to tell us it was, pre-surge. But because we stayed to see it through, even though it looks like we’re going to be there a while, at great cost ot treasure and lives, France and Germany now look to us as a stalwart ally. Seeing that resolve again, like they had not in the Clinton years, they found themselves reminded.. as Sarkozy says:
The men and women of my generation heard their grandparents talk about how in 1917, America saved France at a time when it had reached the final limits of its strength, which it had exhausted in the most absurd and bloodiest of wars.
The men and women of my generation heard their parents talk about how in 1944, America returned to free Europe from the horrifying tyranny that threatened to enslave it.
Fathers took their sons to see the vast cemeteries where, under thousands of white crosses so far from home, thousands of young American soldiers lay who had fallen not to defend their own freedom but the freedom of all others, not to defend their own families, their own homeland, but to defend humanity as a whole.
Fathers took their sons to the beaches where the young men of America had so heroically landed. They read them the admirable letters of farewell that those 20-year-old soldiers had written to their families before the battle to tell them: “We don’t consider ourselves heroes. We want this war to be over. But however much dread we may feel, you can count on us.” Before they landed, Eisenhower told them: “The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.”
When they thought America had shrunk from that perspective, we were of less worth to them as an ally. Seeing our current actions in Iraq and elsewhere, they now see us as worthwhile, again. That’s the way our staying in Iraq and working it through to success, brought our old freinds closer, again. That’s how those two situations are connected.