ALL OUR "ALLIES " LOVE US - -FOR THE MOMENT | 2001-09-14
In Vietnam, our European "allies" -- the ones declaring their undying love for us right now -- turned against us as soon as the first excitement died down (See April 14, 2001 - THE "ALLIES" GAMBIT).
Today we are grateful to the Europeans for their sympathy for American dead in New York and Washington.
We think that sympathy means lasting European support. We are not remembering the last time we actually staged reprisals against an Arab country for its support of terrorists.
You have to go back to Reagan's bombing of Libya to find an example of a military action we took entirely as a response to terrorist acts. We proved that Libya had sponsored bombings that took American lives in Western Europe -- on the very soil of our "allies." So Reagan ordered that country bombed.
Nobody in continental Europe would let our British-based bombers fly in "allied" air space to attack Libya. They had to fly west of Portugal over open ocean and it probably cost American lives.
Europe is a lot like Clinton. When it's just a matter of sympathy, they feel our pain. But they will cheer us on as we get in, and they will desert us as soon as the novelty wears off.