The script says the U.S. is supposed to always play the bad guy!!!

Literary sort Anne-Solange Noble, commenting an FT item by Christopher Caldwell ("Europe shocks true democrats",) on the US view of the European constition referenda, on Anne-Solange Noble shows us how far many Europeans have gone off of the deep end:

«"the so-called US opposition [to the European constitution] was, at every level, a figment of anti-American imagination". There goes the good old "European anti-Americanism" complaint again!

Mr Caldwell keeps telling us that Mr Bush's position "endorsed, by and large, by the American public" is the following: Yes to a Europe as strong as it wishes to become, No to a Europe that sees itself as a "counterweight" to the US. And he goes on saying that "many US papers could pass for europhile organs of the continental press . . . "

So how would all these seemingly pro-European in the US (the president, the people, the media) react to the following European position? Thank you for accepting that we become as strong as we wish - and by the way we wish to become a (friendly and balanced) counterweight to the US.

Or is that being too europhile for your taste?»

- Anne-Solange Noble, Paris, France

Do you notice how everything is about them and their pet peeves? Does she want America to HELP the EU become a hyper-puissant entity with a taste for impoverishing trade restrictions, condescension for the rest of civilization, and those nanny-like lectures? Should the U.S. pose as a sort of Snidely Whiplash to make them feel more virtuous when they find petty things to dwell on, or feed their population's ulcer of perpetual hatred?

Her desire to scrap with euro-heretics far exceeds Caldwells point which is about the democratic deficit in the EU, and that very Kristallnacht sort of obsession with the U.S. found in Europe, not about whatever it is that they think of Georges Boooosh. Newsflash for Ms Noble: Americans really dont care about how Europeans governance wants to comport itself. We're for it because it seemed to be what most Europeans want. It's called being supportive, if you can remember what that's about.

As for being a counterweight, every region of the world is a counterweight to every other in certain matters, and the world is bigger than just the EU and US and far bigger than your imagination. Victor David Hanson points out who Europeans should really not break their gaze from:

«Yes, we are witnessing one of the great transfers of power and influence that have traditionally changed civilization itself, as money, influence, and military power are gradually inching away from Europe. And this time the shake-up is not regional but global. While scholars and economists concentrate on its economic and political dimensions, few have noticed how a new China and an increasingly vulnerable

Europe will markedly change the image of the United States. As nations come to know the Chinese, and as a ripe Europe increasingly cannot or will not defend itself, the old maligned United States will begin to look pretty good again. More important, America will not be the worlds easily caricatured sole power, but more likely the sole democratic superpower that factors in morality in addition to national interest in its treatment of others.»

So while Ms Noble who displays great cultural sensitivity is preoccupied with the US, the world is changing. Since its about her image of America, yhe meaningless of her dwelling will undermine itself without anyone ever having to feel her pain.

- Re-remerci to the very alert Steve Piranha and Michael D.