8/16/2004 07:49:26 AM|||Nathan Moore|||

See, all this time I thought we were hated by the European rank and file leadership

The air force will withdraw from Rhein-Main air base in Frankfurt and consolidate operations in Ramstein and Spangdahlem. One US official said there had been an intense, joint Pentagon/state department effort to ease the German government's concerns about the reduction and that some new capabilities including a new brigade of light-armoured Stryker vehicles are a result of German requests.

Silly me. I wasn't nuanced enough to not take German Chancellor Gerhard Shroeder's comments at face value. If we are such a horrible nation, why the clamor for the continued stationing of our troops on German soil? It's economic, of course. The same reasons that Germany, France and Russia fought so vehemently to keep the Iraqi liberation from happening.

The American press must recalibrate its collective view of Europe. The continent ought not get the presumption that its motives are pure. Which is fine, in my view. But an honest assessment, not centered around perceived American arrogance, is absolutely necessary.

|||109266086617291509|||Really...