The E.U. underwhelms on other big issues. "When it comes to pressing international problems like Afghanistan, Pakistan or North Korea, the E.U. is either largely invisible or absent," wrote Grant in his essay, provocatively titled "Is Europe Doomed to Fail as a Power?" Lucio Caracciolo, editor of Limes, one of Italy's leading foreign policy magazines, says the problem is a Cold War hangover. The post-World War II period was a golden age for Western Europe, a time of reconstruction under the U.S. security umbrella, he argues. When it ended, Europe went into shock. "We're in denial," Caracciolo says. "We see that the Americans are not interested -- to put it mildly -- in our interests, and we put our head in the sand." Europe "happily decides," Caracciolo says, that Afghanistan, Iran, are American affairs. "Any major crisis is something that is analyzed abroad. We are not up to the responsibilities of the time."

If only Europe actually decided that Afghanistan & Iran are American affairs... The population thinks so, but the leadership don't (or do think it, but think they can't avoid to be involved in US affairs, because the US is our friend) and try to follow US policy by stealth - and thus we get schizophrenia.

This is yet another episode of the "Americans are from Mars, Europeans are from Venus" debate, except that European leadership is stuck somewhere in the void in-between...

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes