The Middle Distance

Ah. I was rather expecting that to be the case. Bit like how all the Arab world sees is dead Palestinians and all Israel sees is dead Israelis. The thing about war is that there is never a moral high ground. Even during WW2 the Allies did bad, bad things (terrorbombing of Dresden, for one) and that's actually a war that had a clear bad guy. War makes victims and bad guys of everyone in the end.

I've noticed that the US also very quickly claim that Iraqi fighters are just 'thugs', but according to international law, the Iraqis do actually have some rights to take arms against the occupying force, i.e the US and others. Makes me wonder what the US would do if there was a general Iraqi uprising - call them all thungs and foreign fighters?

Yeah, the gap between the US and Europe is widening. But in Europe we don't see this as all bad. We have to some degree been in the shadow of America since WW2, just like Eastern Europe was in the shadow of Soviet (a heavier and nastier shadow, granted). Many here see this as an opportunity for Europe to rise up and be a balancing force against the US. There is a belief here that the US needs someone to balance it. Might be European arrogance, I guess, but there are those within Europe who want this rift. And there are those who don't want it. However, the Shrub is giving all the good cards to those who want the rift. Heck, even al-Quida has noticed Europe's not very fond of the US of A currently.

And hey, Honduras has decided to pull its forces from Iraq too.