When the man comes to town

President Bush just passed through our neck of the woods on what the press kept insisting was a fence mending tour. Yet at every stop it seemed more like an, “I told you so” tour. I listened to and read most of what was said, publicly anyway. Seemed to me Bush was telling European leaders, “We know, and you know that you have been on the wrong side of things. It’s OK to change sides now that the heavy lifting is done.” Even the few socialist friends I know here were more concerned about the cost of the trip than anything the president said.

President Bush is a plain spoken guy. He lays problems in Iran squarely at the feet of the Iranians. He lays problems in Korea, squarely at the feet of the North Koreans. He lays problems in Iraq squarely at the feet of the Syrian backed terrorists. European leaders, perhaps because the gene pool here has been depleted from constant war and inbreeding, are quick to accept partial responsibility for all of the world’s problems. They offer concessions in every case. The president was having none of it.

While German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was advocating appeasement on the Iranian problem Bush said, "They were caught enriching uranium after they had signed a treaty saying they wouldn't enrich uranium…They have breached a contract with the international community. They're the party that needs to be held to account, not any of us." Even us dopes can understand that.

While Bush and Blair were talking about NATO being the “cornerstone” of American policy in Europe and of its “fundamental importance”, Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac were talking about the European Union taking over European defense. That’s sort of like letting the third string run out the clock at the end of a hard fought football game isn’t it? After 60 years of American protection and only after the bully has been pounded to dust do the Europeans grow a set and step up.

Here are a few sad facts about Europe:

- Their populations are shrinking. Birth rates are so low as to make it impossible for the culture to survive. As a result, the population is getting older and older. Immigrants are hired to do anything resembling real work.
- Even as the population base shrinks, the taxes go up to support extended vacations, never ending unemployment benefits and early retirement.
- Any of the several state National Guards in the United States, have more real combat capability than NATO minus the US and Great Britain. What little military power the EU has, they have no way of getting to the fight - No real air or military sea lift and no forced entry capability.

Gerhard and Jacques now talk as if they won the game, when all they really did was take a knee in the last two plays. Now, they talk as if they are ready to start the next game. And maybe they are, but that game better be against the school for octogenarian blind women with polio and nerve disorders requiring respirators.

Last, much was made of Chirac speaking only French at the president’s dinner. I can’t get too upset about a guy speaking in his native tongue – even if it is the language of retreat.