Could Kerry Make Euro-American Relations Worse?

Mon Oct 25,11:59 AM ET

Politics - Reuters

By Erik Kirschbaum

BERLIN (Reuters) - Far from instantly healing transatlantic tensions, a John Kerry (news - web sites) presidency could present Europeans with an agonizing new dilemma on Iraq (news - web sites), the head of a leading think-tank said Monday.

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William Drozdiak, executive director of the German Marshall Fund's Transatlantic Center in Brussels, said a gap between Europe and the United States was growing wider due to sharply divergent views on security after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

He predicted Germany and other European governments might be in for a rude awakening if they secretly hoped for better ties with a Kerry administration than with President Bush (news - web sites).

Drozdiak said Kerry, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts who is challenging Bush in next week's election, would press Europeans hard to join the U.S. efforts in Iraq.

"If they were to say 'no' to Kerry, the risk of a backlash against Europe in America would be large," he told a group of journalists in Berlin, adding Europeans were failing to grasp the "pervasive paranoia" over security in the United States.

"There would then be a risk of a systemic rupture. Americans would say: 'We can't depend on Europe even though we protected Europe for 50 years'. It will cause lasting damage to the relationship, a great sense of disillusionment."

Successive German governments since the late 1940s have had close ties with U.S. administrations. But relations were strained two years ago when Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, joined by France, loudly opposed U.S. plans to invade Iraq.

Both Schroeder and Bush have taken steps to repair some of the damage, but Germany's refusal to help in Iraq remains a sore spot. Schroeder's "no" to Iraq is popular with most Germans.

"It would be very hard for a German chancellor to turn his back if Kerry were to make an appeal that the survival of the German-American partnership depends on support in Iraq," Drozdiak said. "It could be a serious blow and get relations ... off to a bad start."

The German Marshall Fund polled Europeans in nine nations and found 76 percent disapproved of Bush's handling of world affairs. Four in five said Iraq was not worth the cost.

Drozdiak said it was possible relations with Europe in a second Bush administration would get better. He said the importance of German and French cooperation with the United States on Iraq went beyond sending troops.

"It's not a question of a few thousand troops, it's getting legitimacy," he said. "It's not just the manpower, but it's wanting to build an alliance.

"The most important contribution of troops could come from Muslim countries, from India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and maybe even Egypt. That could refute the aims of the insurgents."

I thought this was an interesting perspective on what Kerry might do to Euro-American relations with his promised attempts to bring other nations into Iraq.

  I do believe that the relationships with the EU will improve.

  As well as relationships with Mexico. If Kerry wins, I hope he will remove to Tony Garza as the US Ambassador in Mexico.

   I haven't seen an injerensist ambassador as he is in a long time.

  I was trying to say that ambassador Garza loves to make statement about our internal affairs.

  He's positions is an open interference to our local policies. Specially, when the goverment pressured by the public opinion did not supported to the US at the UN when Irak was invaded.