This time, Europe's hatred justified

ANDREW GREELEY

_C OLOGNE, Germany--
There were Americanflags
all over the houseI visited
the other day in the suburbs of this
lovely city. Two of the children of
the house -- two German kids on
the edge of what we would call
young adulthood --had studied in
the United States and learned to
love the country. What about the
Iraq war? I asked their father, a
social science colleague. They are
able to make the distinction, he
replied, between the war, of which
they strongly disapprove, and the
United States, which they admire.
In other words, between the
country and its present leadership.
It is not a distinction that everyone
in Europe is ready to make. Hating
America is the anti-Semitism of
the European intelligentsia. It al-
ways has been. Unfortunately, the
Bush administration has poured
fuel on the flames of that hatred.
Why hate America?
There are many reasons. We are
rich and powerful -- and sometimes
obnoxiously loud. The United
States saved Europe in two hot wars
and one cold war. It provided the
umbrella of military protection that
enabled Western Europe to achieve
the prosperity it now takes for
granted. Cologne has come a long
way from the ruins that Heinrich
Boll described in his early novels.

Without the Marshall Plan, the
Berlin airlift and the Seventh Army,
that re-emergence could never have
happened. Gratitude for American
help? Rather, resentment and envy.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Moreover, from the beginning of
first tentative steps, American pol-
icy supported the development of
what is now the European Union.
For that, Europeans, so proud that
their borders now include most of
the continent, will never be able to
forgive us. Like I say, no good deed
goes unpunished. It is great fun to
bite the hand that has fed you.
Now hatred for America is so
strong that in countries like Ger-
many and Spain political losers can
become winners simply by running
against George W. Bush. President
Jacques Chirac, a corrupt and in-
competent man, rises to new heights
of popularity because he filibusters
__________
Political losers can
become winners simply
by running against Bush.

against the invasion of Iraq. One
hears that he believed that would be
his legacy. He stood up to the
United States and saved Saddam
Hussein, an ally of France. It would
also appear that Saddam believed
that the United States would not in-
vade because France and Russia
would save him. He had not read
the writings of the neo-conservative
intellectuals who had infiltrated the
Bush administration and were de-
termined to invade Iraq, and indeed
preferred a unilateral invasion.
It is galling that, in retrospect,
Chirac and German Chancellor Ger-
hard Schroeder and Russian Presi-

dent Vladimir Putin were right.
Saddam was a bad man whom the
world had to watch closely. But he
did not have those weapons of mass
destruction and had not partici-
pated in the World Trade Center at-
tack. Indeed, Deputy Defense Secre-
tary Paul Wolfowitz, the prince of
darkness of the neo-conservatives,
admitted that the weapons were a
bureaucratic pretext for a war that
was desirable for other reasons (like
''reshaping'' the Middle East).
This time European hatred of
America was absolutely correct,
though most do not make the dis-
tinction of my friends here in
Cologne between the Bush adminis-
tration, which was not elected by the
majority of Americans, and the good
spirits of our country. This time the
country is not being punished for its
good deeds but for a very bad deed:
a criminally unjust war.
It is useful to see how the war is
covered by the European media,
such as the BBC and Irish Times
(which I read every day). Their
''slant'' is a useful correction to that
provided (until very recently) by
American media. However, there is
also an evident satisfaction -- one
might almost say celebration -- of
the humiliation and corruption of
American power in Iraq.
A retired American diplomat who
had served in Ireland recently
blamed the Irish Times for the
World Trade Center attack. It is
true the newspaper has historically
been critical of the U.S. government,
but no more critical than of the Irish
government. Yet it delights now in
every new American failure.
Hopefully, when the United
States breaks out of its present ob-
sessions, there will be enough peo-
ple like my young Koelners who
realize what it really stands for.