Europe is hosting George Bush probably for the last time in his capacity as head of state. Therefore, his week-long tour, which started on Monday, has been given some relevance. The itinerary includes meetings in Slovenia, the UK, France, Italy, Germany and the Vatican. He will attend the US-EU summit in Ljubljana and a conference on Afghanistan in Paris.
With only a few months left to go as an embattled leader and one of the most unpopular presidents in the history of his country, the development is opportune time to evaluate transatlantic ties in the past eight years.
To say the least, in the early years of the new millennium, relations between the two sides have been largely overshadowed by Bush’s unilateralist policies. The net result has been America’s bloody invasion of Iraq, its withdrawal from international conventions such as Kyoto Protocol, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, and the ABM Treaty.
Add to this Washington’s disregard for and mockery of the national sovereignty of European countries manifested rather stupidly in the hundreds of secret reconnaissance flights of the CIA over EU airspace for several years when “terror suspects“ were moved from one dungeon to another, only to land up in the feared Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba.
It was the disastrous US-led war in Iraq that seriously strained relations between the self-appointed global policeman and the Europeans who normally had had the habit of speaking with one voice on major international issues.
France and Germany, the US’ two traditional political and military allies, publicly opposed the military strike on the Arab country while upstart politicians and Bush’s war planners (remember the super-neocon Donald Rumsfeld) spoke about the need for a new Europe against the “old Europe“.
The old-timers were singled out for rare rebuke by the desperate Bush administration for allegedly undermining the traditionally friendly postures of the two big European players. The talk and tone against Paris and Berlin was unprecedented since World War II and took most, if not all, observers by surprise.
Europeans are also disappointed by Bush’s gross indifference vis-ˆ-vis so me political, economic and environmental concerns. They are upset with America’s withdrawal from important international treaties that had strong EU backing. Some of the global pacts have a direct bearing on the daily lives of Europeans. The Kyoto Protocol is one case in point.
What is more, the Americans threatened Europe that they would withdraw their peacekeepers from Bosnia if the Europeans refuse to conclude bilateral and multilateral contracts to reject the eligibility of the ICC. The threat implied that not abiding by Washington’s wishes would lead to a new round of racial conflict in Europe.
At any rate, since 2001 Bush and his neo-conservative enclave has adopted a strategy according to which Europe would function only as an obedient political entity, not an equal partner. This perhaps helps explain why most of Bush’s European tours and his presence at international forums were marked by huge anti-US demonstrations that at times have been violent.