Craig, I'm not finding an answer here as to why so many Europeans don't support Mr. Bush's policies now.

Its easy to bash the French about all this. Have you ever looked at how much terrorism the French have had to deal with, the problems with the huge impoverished Muslim minority their colonialism has brought them, or how good the French are at dealing with terrorists? How is the French position on the war benefiting them financially now?

What about the rest of Europe? How were the Swedes and Norwegians benefiting? I don’t have the answers, I would liked to have been able to ask more questions when I was there.

One difference I see is that being citizens of small countries with divergent interests, the Europeans are more accustomed to dealing with different views, interests and circumstances. I was surprised by the differences between just Sweden and Norway, seemingly similar countries with populations smaller than many U.S. counties.

I one of those who has never fully credited the arm's buildup and confrontation during the 80's with the collapse of the soviet block. I believe that the core belief we held, that totalitarian communism was fundamentally unsound and unsustainable was correct. In 1987 I read Gorbachev's book Perestroika. He identified several failings of their system and the need for reform. The one that stands out in my mind was the need for spiritual/creative freedom for the then soviet societies to thrive. I thought at the time that Gorbachev was a sincere reformer who saw some of the real failings of the soviet system and was determined to change them. Was I wrong? It used to scare the hell of people when I told them that was what I got from the book. People were terrified to trust anything a commie said. But look what happened, have you looked fully at the role Gorby played at the time? Must it be only one cause that brings a result?

Why do we have to bash people so much who don’t agree with us? I really dislike the polarized political climate that exists in the U.S. today. All over the media now is the effort to smear the hell out of Kerry on the one hand with the same going on about Bush on the other. Little of it has anything to do with effective leadership, or the real issues that confront us. Right now I feel this election is going to be decided on largely irrelevant rubbish.

I think your questions are interesting if we are looking for real answers. If we are just trying to persuade each other to our beliefs they become less so.


Mark