HAVING BITTEN THE HAND THAT FED THEM:

European Leaders Struggle to Mend Rift With U.S. (ELAINE SCIOLINO, March 20, 2003, NY Times)

Torn by a deep and bitter split over Iraq, the leaders of Europe came together today to struggle with how to restore unity among themselves and with the United States, even to the point of offering to participate in Iraq's post-war reconstruction.

While no one would have planned it this way, the 15 leaders of the European Union gathered in Brussels for a long-scheduled quarterly summit on the very day that the war against Saddam Hussein was launched, and the Europeans were distracted by television reports on the United States-led attack on Iraq.

Never before in the history of the European Union have its members had to grapple with two more different impulses on foreign policy. There is deep resentment among most of them that the United States waged war without the legality of international cover, despite their individual and collective appeals; at the same time, there is the sense that if the United States is the victor - as anticipated - the Europeans will have been on the wrong side of the war and as a group had better reposition themselves to be part of a post-war reconstruction. [...]

The European Commission chief, Romano Prodi, meanwhile, called on the member countries to pull together, saying, "We cannot rely on others to defend our richness, wealth and security."

Pardon? We've been defending it for them since 1945. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 20, 2003 7:56 PM