[jaguar]

pfffft...
And you think i go off the deep end?
That guy has a rather patchy set of blinkers on.

For a start, France's fuss is caused almost purely by it's existing oil interests, and signifigant they are, in Iraq and certainly not by and lofty moral principles.

Secondly i would not called the size and required length of time of stay of US forces in Afghanistan and now Iraq 'travelling light' by any means, in fact last i checked the cost of such forces was keeping the US budget dripping red ink at what? 2.7% of GDP now?

I think the biggest oversight is the lack of perception in Europe in leadership circles about the death of the Un and similar power structures, rather than rallying round usch pillars instead NATO is finally about to toppe - we are returning to a 19th centuary international climate, to think that European leaders are not aware of this is frankly, naive or stupid.

The "death of Europe" is like "death of Apple", they keep publishing, we'll all keep laughing.

Phrases like "fundamentalist as the radical secularism of post-Christian Europe" are rather funny, until they're justified by statements like " Why would anyone think a disinclination to breed or to defend oneself is the recipe for success?" at which point they become well...rather sad really. Certainly worse than the article he is referring to which itself i'll admit was silly in parts.

It's one of those issues you can play any way you want, i mean there is certainly an arguement that the dramatic falls in US R&D and moving of signifigant volumes of jobs as well as large sections of manufacturaing overseas is going to.......

But then i guess i don't write wanky articles for second rate british newspapers.