Pick up the Economist this week

If you can spare a couple bucks, pick up this week’s edition of the Economist. The cover story “Still taking on the world?” alone is worth the cost of the British magazine. Here’s an excerpt:

Many people – including many Americans – look despairingly on the global disorder and conclude that this is the world Bush built. They say that he inherited an international system that was working well, but in a show of arrogance after September 11th went on to destroy it by pursuing a pointless vendetta against Iraq’s dictator. It is a view that has the virtue of simplicity. But blaming too much on Mr. Bush has a logical flaw. Well before the Iraq war, indeed before he was even elected, Sudan was at war, Palestine was in flames, and North Korea and Iran were flouting their obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

What might be truer is that Mr. Bush believed that America stood a better chance of solving some of these neglected problems by acting on its own than by letting itself be tied down by allies who cared only for a quiet life. If so, he should by now have learnt that this approach can be expensive, even if it has merits. The countries that opposed the Iraq war, led by France, were too weak to stop America. But they have shown that they have the power to damage its foreign policy simply by means of denunciation and abstention. The worry is that by continuing to denounce and abstain even after a chastened Mr. Bush has complied with their wishes in Iraq, they will achieve the opposite of what they desire, by reinforcing the belief of many Americans that apart from a loyal few, such as the plucky Brits, most European allies are worthless.

The Democrats appear to be plowing ahead with the opinion that if America had only done more to reach out to the Europeans (another U.N. resolution? a bended-knee supplication?) they would have shared more of the burden in Iraq. But this viewpoint is running against an undeniable reality that Jacques Chirac cares less about Iraq than protecting his turf in Europe. Why not call a spade a spade: the French are a useless ally, and from the U.N. to the E.U. to NATO, they’ve done everything in their power to stymie progress in Iraq. If the Democrats, however, still feel we should seek a permission slip from them...well that’s something for voters to meditate on this November.