Dear Log,
From an article from August, this fact just came to mind as I considered the dollar's recent pludge against the euro:
«The US has left a vacuum and the EU alone has the capacity to fill it. Put together, EU nations have far greater voting strength on the World Bank and the IMF than the US (and more than Africa, Latin America and South Asia combined). It has the muscle if it wants to use it.»
Except that put together all the European armies and you can send maybe 1/10th of the number of troops that the US Army can send to war. And that's including the British Army, which is still paid in Pounds and not in Euros.
George Bush and Co. are demonstrating "leadership" (in Dibertesque sense of "don't step in the leadership"). Sooner or later, our country (I'm a US citizen) is going to have to wake up to the fact that leadership is not commanding people to follow, but persuading people to follow. I view us as the playground bully that pushes other kids around. As the other kids get older, they realize that collectively, they can stand up to the bully. I wonder how soon the EU and others are going to get there.
There's so much silly infighting overseas that Washington feels relatively safe. In fact, I've read that much of the US support for the expansion of NATO and the EU was to bring more pro-US countries into the fold, thus making anti-US stances less likely to occur. It's an interesting spin on "divide and conquer" (extend and embrace?).
