Like it or not, the world still looks to America for at least some things. Its economy is largely pivotal to how economies "work" around the world. Whilst China is catching up to the US, and will pretty soon overtake it, for the moment America does influence such critical matters such as the war underway in Afghanistan and what is happening in Pakistan.
Roger Cohen, who writes for the IHT from Europe, in a piece "Europe and Benign Neglect" reflects on how Europe feels jilted by Obama:
"Obama remains popular with Europeans — even if giddy infatuation has gone the way of giddy infatuations — but European political leaders feel jilted. Obama was supposed to put together the European Humpty Dumpty that President Bush shattered by favoring alliances of the willing over old alliances. He hasn’t.
Central Command in Florida, running the Afghan war, rides roughshod over NATO. New Middle East peace initiatives are launched, new Afghan strategies decided, without even a nod to the Europeans who will pick up part of the tab and do part of the dying. Nowhere else has Obama’s remoteness and distaste for the two-minute protocol phone call been so keenly felt as a brush-off."
Roger Cohen, who writes for the IHT from Europe, in a piece "Europe and Benign Neglect" reflects on how Europe feels jilted by Obama:
"Obama remains popular with Europeans — even if giddy infatuation has gone the way of giddy infatuations — but European political leaders feel jilted. Obama was supposed to put together the European Humpty Dumpty that President Bush shattered by favoring alliances of the willing over old alliances. He hasn’t.
Central Command in Florida, running the Afghan war, rides roughshod over NATO. New Middle East peace initiatives are launched, new Afghan strategies decided, without even a nod to the Europeans who will pick up part of the tab and do part of the dying. Nowhere else has Obama’s remoteness and distaste for the two-minute protocol phone call been so keenly felt as a brush-off."
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