The U.S. vs the EU

Francis Fukayama reviews Timothy Garton Ash's "Free World: America, Europe, and the Surprising Future of the West," which, in the spirit of Robert Kagan's useful "Of Paradise and Power", argues that the sociopolitical and cultural differences between the EU and America may be permanent and irreconcilable. Link. Fukayama writes:

But the perceived legitimacy of the American role depends entirely on its being successful. You will be regarded as a leader if you break Serbian power without suffering a single casualty; you will be regarded as an arrogant unilateralist if you fail to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or get bogged down in a guerrilla insurgency. For Tony Blair, the cost of being associated with George W. Bush has been so high as to put into question the ability of any future British prime minister to be so protective of the “special relationship” with the United States.

Due to some technical difficulties this post will show up as an Andy post. It was actually posted by Alfred.