I notice that you reference the ”massive amount of goodwill’ toward the US after 9/11. You ask where did it go? Indeed I have heard this remark many times. It is a favourate comment of the idealists and the media types. Perhaps it went away because it was never all that massive in the first place? Perhaps it went away when it became clear that the U.S. wasn’t going to play the victim very long. In any event, rather than resign itself to living with the terrorism and treating 9/11 as as crime to be dealt with by the police, the U.S. elected to use the military. Perhaps that was the moment when the support waned because it illustrated U.S. millitary power could do what Europe can no longer do.

Regards

Sauron

Sauron,
Going on personal experience and looking at various manifestations of sympathy and outrage, I would say that there was a genuine sense of solidarity after 9/11. I cannot think for a moment that the editorial lines some papers took in Europe, that the various ways in which people felt the urge to show their sympathy in individual or collective ways was fake.
So as somebody who lives in Europe, I can assure you that there was to my eyes a genuine sense of goodwill in the “traditional European allies” towards the USA.
And this has obviously been eroded in recent years. I do not believe that it is down to the fact that the US decided to strike back. One only has to look back at events from the last decade or so to see that many European countries took part in military operations alongside the USA, whether in the Balkans or in Afghanistan, to see that it can’t be as simple as that.
Various “smaller” countries also have conducted operations of their own, to try and restore peace or strike at dangerous targets.

I think that on the part of many opponents to some aspects of US policy there is a perception that the USA has decided to go it alone. Now before you or US forum users start flaming, let me qualify this by saying I am looking for reasons in the transatlantic rift. These are not the sum total of my opinions. (one of the books I am currently reading is Tom Clancy’s non-fiction book on the Marines, out of genuine interest; I am not a US-basher).
I do believe that the attacks struck at the heart of America and that as such, it is not really our place (“our” meaning non US citizens and/or residents) to criticise, just as people living outside the UK for example have no call telling its inhabitants how to go about their lives.
The problem stems from the fact that some actions taken by the USA have a knock-on effect on the rest of the world who are not directly involved (inasmuch as we can nowadays fail to feel involved by an attack on a traditional Western ally; which I would possibly question).

And one of the stated purposes of recent military operations has been to try and combat instability on the world stage.
Well one has to acknowledge that this has not been achieved yet. Naturally I am not suggesting for a second that this is an objective which can be accomplished in a matter of months or years. The question is ‘We aren’t there yet, but are we at least going in the right direction?’.

The other topic which was broached in the last few posts concerns the question of UN involvment. My recollection from a few years ago seem to point in the direction that it was Tony Blair who urged President Bush to get UN backing before attacking Iraq, in order to keep other European countries on side.
The other point worth mentioning is that from what I read in recent weeks (which doesn’t amount to a lot I confess because of a hectic schedule) regarding the conclusion of the US Congressional inquiry into the handling of post 9/11 policy, some serious flaws were identified, were they not, about the way Intelligence was used or presented?
I do not side with rabid anti-US militant, but nor do I accept the dismissive and simplistic view that most European countries are lilly-livered cowards apart from the UK.
Things are a lot more complex and there are many arguments and facts which I think are not getting looked at hard enough.

These are the things I’d enjoy hearing more about, particularly from people who know these issues quite well and have thought hard about them.