Rice’s European troubleshooting fails threefold

The continuing controversy over US "secret prisons” and abductions in Europe - coupled with Condoleezza Rice’s failure to clear the air - has made life difficult for European governments, but created even more perils for the US’s attempt to put transatlantic relations on an even keel.

In her response to allegations about the Central Intelligence Agency’s activities in Europe, the US secretary of state failed to get to grips with European perceptions that President George W. Bush’s America is a wild, brutal place that contrasts with the peaceful, law-abiding EU.

Ms Rice’s statement this week included three big legal arguments, all of which fell far short of bringing the debate to a close....

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f66c23a2-668a-11da-884a-0000779e2340,dwp_uuid=d4f2ab60-c98e-11d7-81c6-0820abe49a01.html

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Guess our EU friends are smarter than our USA Red State voters. In the EU they recognize the repetitive BushSpin for what it is.

is of a latter-day Wild West, where symbolic (and often real) gun fights, bank robberies, cattle theft, Bible spouting and a general "every cowpoke for himself" reality prevail. Europeans believe a collective insanity has gained the upper hand in the American pysche. SG

I'd say that about covers it.

seem simply to conceive of Dubya as a larger than life "real Amurikan" or what they have unhappily come to understand as "Amurikan". Somehow many of them (at least the ones I talk to) seem much less disgusted and dispairing of this regime than we do. SG

... IMO:

FEAR. The people are scared. Even when things are going relatively well where we live, there is always a fresh stock of shocking new stories being spewed by the lamestream media to keep us terrified. Of course, these stories are often true, as the cycles of vicious behavior are reinforced by anti-human labor and economic policies. Fear is important, because it makes us insecure, and when we're insecure, our ape instinct is to look for the strong leader to make everything okay again.

DIVISION. We are split, no, splintered in our society. We are told to be "our own men", when those in power know full well how weak individuals are when they oppose a political or economic system. We are told that it is normal to leave our families around the age of 18 and "make it on our own", when anyone with any experience in looking for a job understands that trying to find a job cold is the worst way to do it. Objective? Destroy the natural unity and mutual support of the family. A strong, united family is a center of resistance, after all. Likewise, real bonding to a locality is discouraged by allowing city centers to go to rot, telling people they must constantly move to keep a decent job, an encouraging the notion that any house bought is not really a serious stake -- after all, you'll probably move into a new one in thirty years or less if you can afford it. In other words, no real loyalty to anyone or anything except your employer.

DISTRACTION. Yeah boy, our entertainment is the best! Films, TV, sports, electronic games, celebrities ... sickening to see how low it has brought us, and how readily societies like those in Europe suck it up and emulate it. We don't want the people thinking about serious issues. It is much more important who won the game yesterday, and we shouldn't worry our pretty heads over what the White House is up to. Good old lamestream media is a major criminal in this operation, always reporting new, meaningless schlock whenever public attention begins to focus on something significant. But as good slaves of the corporate overlords, how could they act any other way?

Cheers

BH

On edit: grammar correction

That's more the Hollywood and dime-novel Wild West. In the real American West, the population was determined to achieve a general state of law-abiding peacefulness.

Those who stood in the way of this striving were considered, well, outlaws.

most Europeans only know the legendary Hollywood version! And George, in their eyes, is nothing but a hard ridin', hard drinkin', gun slingin' cowboy--with his crazed finger on the trigger. My students love it when I tell them the "all hat and no cattle" joke. SG

One-third of the people in America are stupid, and these are the people who support Bush and his policies. That number is probably smaller than that, but Americans can be stubborn, and some of those Bush supporters may have changed their minds, but refuse to admit it for fear of losing face in their social circles. Always bear in mind that 50% is a good turn out in elections here in America. By no means does Bush have the support of any kind of majority, except possibly in certain regions over here.

That Bush is really an upper class rich boy from civilized new England playing an act.

Remember, Bush isn't a cowboy, and not just because he doesn't ride horses. The strong, silent man with a code of honor and a sense of responsibility you see in the movies is so far from these chickenhawk lying sacks that calling him a cowboy is just wrong.

Now, the US IS like the wild west in the general anarchy and lack of social control that Europeans take for granted. To a large extent, that's just a matter of personal taste and lifestyle choice.

But the way that Bush and the ascendent republican elites resemble the wild west is the Robber Baron economy: it's a kleptocracy, meant to rig government to provide swag and riches. Bush & Co. are not cowboys. They are the the industrialist stealing the cowboy's grazing land, putting the railroad through on government granted right of ways through indian villages and charging monopoly prices, bribing their way to the public trough, and selling the army rotten pork and defective guns. That's your wild west analogy.

to mean someone careless, even reckless, and incompetent - eg a 'cowboy plumber' who promises to fix your problem, with a discount for cash (so he can avoid tax), who end up making it worse - and then runs off before he can be made to fix it properly. This fits Bush so exactly that it's inevitable we see him as the 'cowboy president'.

It's a different type of cowboy.

:sarcasm:

is that European governments, especially the UK one, want to present Rice's arguments as successful.

Pretty much sums it up doncha think? :toast:

How sad.