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The more you know about a politician the more reservations you have, which probably explains why DoDo might be more wary of Fischer than most of us, myself included. I've cooled significantly towards him in the last few years.

As for Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, he was strongly atlanticist and was IMHO a bit too quick in recognizing the independence of the Baltic States (that was no small part of the Western-encouraged destabilization of Gorbachev's regime, and my impression is that the Baltic secession was an important motivation in the 19 August 91 coup, which led to the disaster that was Yeltsing and so on and so forth...). On the other hand, he took IMHO the right position on the Danish cartoon controversy, and as redstar points out a foreign minister of a medium-sized country would be a natural choice for President of the Council.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Feb 10th, 2008 at 01:06:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm also rather reserved about Fischer. In a column for the Austrian paper "der Standard" /search for "Transatlantisches Dilemma" he wrote:
   
   
   
   
Eine mehr multilateral ausgerichtete amerikanische Politik wird den Druck vor allem auf die Europäer erheblich verstärken, mehr Verantwortung bei der internationalen Krisenbewältigung und Konfliktlösung zu übernehmen. [...]
A more multilateral american foreign policy will increase the pressure on the Europeans to take more responsibility in resolving international crisis tremendously. [...]
Worauf warten die Europäer? Warum nicht jetzt damit beginnen, den traditionellen Widerspruch zwischen Nato und EU zu überwinden, zumal unter Sarkozy sich die französische Politik gegenüber der Nato positiv verändert? Eine gegenseitige regelmäßige Präsenz der politischen Führungsspitzen in den politischen Gremien beider Organisationen bedarf keines großen Aufwandes.What are the Europeans waiting for? Why not resolve the traditional conflict between Nato and EU now that French policy under Sarkozy grows more positive toward Nato? A regular presence of the political Leadership of both organisations in each other's committees would not involve significant effort.

Later he suggests regularly inviting US representatives to sessions of the Council of Ministers and points to the failure of Kyoto as a case in point.
What I found most troubling while reading his column is that he nowhere acknowledges that Europe and the US could ever have fundamentally different interests.

The plural of anecdote is bullshit.

by generic on Sun Feb 10th, 2008 at 04:38:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
That's the exact same passages I quoted from him -- from the Guardian version of the same Project Syndicate text.

Re Migeru, I was probably more wary of Fischer until a year ago than most of you, but my current opinion was based on this op-ed alone: it shows he didn't learnt anything and got lost ideologically on the American lecture circuit.

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

by DoDo on Sun Feb 10th, 2008 at 04:51:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Should have figured that there was no need to translate it myself :)

Sadly the vast majority of the European political elites can't envision a Europe that's not defined by the transatlantic relationship.

The plural of anecdote is bullshit.

by generic on Sun Feb 10th, 2008 at 05:39:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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