THE WAR
It finally dawned on me (I'm a little slow) that the whole European resistance to the idea of fighting a war to get rid of Saddam really has little to do with the merits (or lack thereof!) for going to war. It's really about power -- not unlike that of the labor union which is organizing to protest the policies of management. In fact, the management policies may not be all that bad -- but the relatively powerless workers have to draw a line somewhere so that management treats them with respect.

It doesn't matter whether it's worth fighting a war or not. That's not at all the point. But it seems, from the perspective of a good many countries in the world, that the US has just gotten too big for its britches -- now that there is no other superpower to hold us in check. So they are all letting us know what they think. And as with striking workers the walkouts always seem to come at the most inopportune times. This is because the most inopportune times are when they can most forcefully make their point.