Originally posted by sigma:
I wouldn't go so far as saying that "more sensitive" applies to just France and Germany though. Nor does "more sensitive" mean "bend to the will of".





I think it distills down to France & Germany though, perhaps Russia. The administration heavily lobbied those countries in the pre-war runnup...Colin Powell was a fequent visitor leading up to the war. Bush and Putin met several times, and seemed to have a good relationship- remember? Even a good dialog with China on this, impressive after the aircraft collision incident early in Bush's tenure. And China's help in negotiating with N.Korea in multilateral talks now is I think superb diplomacy. Recall the democratic outcries to conceed to N.Korea's demands for unilateral nule talks in 2002-03...more consessions! More "sensitivity"..

Never a closer relationship with UK/Blair & Bush (except maybe Churchill). Other allies came aboard..Spain, Italy, Australia, Poland, Japan, etc. etc. Even S.Korea...a first. Bush worked HARD on Turkey, Mexico's Vincente Fox & Canada..without much luck. Amazing results with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia...all things considered.

But France & Germany turned the UN security councel away from us. Recall France's abrupt turn after telling Powell that we had their support the day before.. It seems clear that at least in the beginning, bending to their will, letting France determine OUR response to a percieved threat to OUR country was the ONLY way to gain whatever co-operation they were going to provide. Bush said no to those terms. And I remain convinced that Kerry's sensitivity would allow him to pursue courses favorable to achieving E.U.s approval over our national security. This is why he scares me.....all his other liberal failings are reversible or balnced by congress. And all of Bush's failings are similarly fixable.



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