A European Conversation

Maggie Gallagher writes of a recent discussion she had with a Swiss mother, and the column takes a look at the opposing American and Euroweenie worldviews. (Hat tip to Blackfive)

“People hate you. Everyone hates you. The whole world hates you.” The pretty middle-aged woman, a Swiss mother and scholar, at the dinner table in Geneva earnestly wants to make that perfectly clear.

She isn’t angry with me. She thinks the American people are totally ignorant, misled by the media and a criminal president. She also thinks the United States invaded Afghanistan in order to grab an oil pipeline.

This is my test of whether conversation is possible. I can understand how Europeans can believe the war in Iraq was about oil. After all, European nations like France and Russia had been benefiting from sweetheart oil deals in Iraq for years. But Afghanistan?

Go give it a read. I found this snippet rather telling:

Does it sometimes take a war in order to achieve justice? Fifty-five percent of Americans strongly agree. Only 18 percent of Europeans do.

Trust me, I know how these “conversations” can go. Worse yet, my girlfriend’s Swiss brother-in-law drinks the Michael Moore brand of kool-ade.