Europeans largely accept the U.S. as the undisputed world leader. They also accept, perhaps grudgingly, that in some cases U.S. force of arms is needed. "Iraq is a symptom not a cause" of the transatlantic rift, says Sergei Karaganov, foreign policy chief of the Institute of Europe in Moscow. "The real cause is that Europe is looking inward and thus shies away from the world. So the U.S. is actually pushed to fill the gaps." But Europeans still want Washington to take their concerns and approaches into account.
Bush's provocative doctrine of pre-emptive war — and Iraq is its first example — plus his Administration's triumphalist tone boil down, in European eyes, to a dismissive message: we're strong, you're not, so shut up and do what we want. Says Lousewies van der Laan, a Dutch Member of the European Parliament: "They need the rest of the world more than ever and they seem to be going out of their way to offend it."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed the forceful opposition from France and Germany as unimportant chatter from "old Europe." In so doing, he managed to denigrate something that's seen on the Continent as one of the best things that's happened in the past 50 years: a strong Franco-German relationship. Secretary of State Colin Powell was reportedly so "incandescent" with rage at France's broadside that he struck a harsh new tone aligning himself with the advocates of war. "Inspections will not work," he declared, and "it's an open question right now" whether the U.S. would seek further U.N. approval before acting. Yet the Administration is concerned European resistance could nourish American antiwar sentiment.
U.S. officials say Bush will probably give the inspections more time — but only a little more — before insisting on a final decision. The President will use the time to try again to make the strongest case for war, in hopes he can still bring old allies aboard. But at heart the Administration thinks the furor won't do more than delay the inevitable. As a senior advisor to Bush once put it: "The way to win international acceptance is to win. That's diplomacy: winning."
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