2005-04-26

"New Europe" rapidly aging

Donald Rumsfeld called the countries that offered their token support to the war in Iraq the "New Europe," even though there is contention for the name of "Old Europe" that includes a German restaurant in Washington, a Polish restaurant in Cucharras, Nevada, a place reputed to have the best pierogies in Pittsburgh and most likely a lot of other places. In any case, Deutsche Welle reports that the moniker is not sticking where Mr Rumsfeld wanted it stuck. DW reports that the formerly willing countries "are gradually turning their backs on the United States as rewards fail to materialize." Complaints include cost, lack of popular support, political friction with other European states, and the failure of the United States to reciprocate with political or economic benefits. Since the adventurists in the Bush administration seem to have exhausted the newness of one Europe and will probably not find a newer one, it could be a good time to listen to the old and middle-aged ones.

2 comments:

Katja R. said...

Rummy really needs to buy a map! There's only ONE Europe, it's all OLD! and it does have some new stuff but it's kind of mixed up all over the place.

Anonymous said...

Actually, the current administration of Romania has continued to cleave quite closely to the US.

Romania still has troops in Iraq, and has no plans to withdraw them -- despite the three Romanian journalists currently being held hostage there. (In fact, by the end of the year, Romania may be the fourth largest foreign force in Iraq.) The Iraq intervention is not popular in Romania, but there's little public pressure to withdraw the troops either, so at this point it looks like they'll stay for a while.

Also, President Basescu has recently said that he plans to keep Romania aligned to a "Washington-London-Bucharest axis", and that Romania would not accept criticism of its foreign policy from, for instance, France.


Doug M.