WP: War in Middle East Puts U.S.-European Warming Trend on Hold

[DeepModem Mom]

War in Middle East Puts U.S.-European Warming Trend on Hold
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 29, 2006; Page A08

PARIS, July 28 -- Just when President Bush was starting to mend the political rift between the United States and Europe, the latest Middle East conflict has reopened the transatlantic divide, on the streets and in government.

Across Europe, leaders and citizens are expressing growing alarm over Washington's refusal to rein in Israel's bombing of Lebanon and appear increasingly fearful of the pro-Hezbollah sentiment unleashed in the Middle East by the daily scenes of destruction and civilian deaths. Many officials said they worry about backlashes in their own restive Muslim and Arab communities.

French President Jacques Chirac called on Friday for the adoption, "as quickly as possible," of a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the Middle East.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who again has emerged as Bush's closest European ally but is under increasing pressure from his European counterparts, met with the president in Washington later Friday to push for a quick U.N. resolution to halt the violence.

The differences are straining relations just as the United States is calling on its European allies to supply troops for a possible peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. The Pentagon says the U.S. military is too stretched in Iraq and Afghanistan to participate....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/28/AR2006072801614.html

[tocqueville]

1. Freedom fries anyone ?

this time we're buying...