I got a jumpstart on the reading this week and want to point out a few things from Gordon's Bridging the Atlantic Divide article. While I personally feel that we need strong transatlantic relations and agree with him, I think he could have a more convincing argument.
Gordon gives strong examples showing our (US, EU) different attitudes toward sovereignty, military force and power. You begin to see where the differences may well be irreconcilable.
So where do the two agree? Well, 71% of Americans consider global warming a serious problem. And a clear majority believe we should join the EU in ratifying the Kyoto Protocol." Um, ok. How could we NOT agree that global warming is a serious problem? The North Koreans probably agree that global warming is a problem. So maybe I'm being harsh. I do understand that he is trying to illustrate that the general American and European public share similar public attitudes. But I believe most of the globe shares the same public attitudes on global warming and government required labeling.
In the following paragraph, he discusses European support for US military action in Afghanistan. In October 2001. Most of the world understood our emotions and actions less than one month after 9/11. And while maybe not all openly supported us like the EU (several, however, did) few were condemning our actions.
It seems to me we agree on the small things but disagree on a larger scale. That could be a problem.
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