Why should the US even care if Europe follows its lead, if it's irrelevant anyway? So either Europe matters (if only as an "international community figleaf kind of way), in which case its positions should certainly be respected to some extent instead of demonized, or it doesn't, in which case why bother.
And the same applies to France.
The real lesson of such articles is that neocons (and neolibs) fundamentally feel threatened by Europe, and endlessly worry about it offering an attractive alternative to their domination. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
My impression from when I read it far more regularly in Oz in the late 90's is that at one time the Economist would only have had the message to the corporate establishment, but as noted in this piece, over the past decade they have fallen away from being a hard and bright tool of the corporate elite to a lot more muddled party-line "thinking". I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
