Letters to the Editor

America's unlikely defender French provocateur Bernard-Henri Levy denounces anti-Americanism and defends the idealism of the neocons. By Oliver Broudy [2006-01-23]

• Possibility and Probability are two different things

  Bernard-Henri Levy declares "[t]he reality of the United States means the possibility of Europe." Those realities grow in America because they're impossibilities in Europe. His astonishment at the course of recent politics and intellects proves this.

  Even the European Union which BHL supports is inspired more by the United Nations than the United States. In any language the EU constitution is a bureaucratic nightmare, albeit a bureaucrat's dream. The debates over the European Union are stagnant pools of stillwater compared to American discussions on the US Constitution and America in general. Any hint of comparison of the EU with the US constitutions are immediately snuffed out with a dismissive wave of the hand, as if something not to the minister's taste had just been brought from the bureau's kitchen.

  If BHL was as open-minded or courageous as he wishes the American left were, he would consider more of his countrymen's anti-American prejudices - or even his own. As much as he likes American culture but despises American politics (and what open-minded European doesn't?), I should like to see him dare to write a book arguing the merits of the American political system over the European.

  He wouldn't lack for company if he does. British journalist Jonathan Freedland, himself no Rupert Murdoch or even William Kristol, wrote one called "Bring Home the Revolution." Even French author Regis Debray wrote "Empire 2.0," a modest tongue-in-cheek proposal for a pan-Atlantic political union.

  -- WhiteCamry
  Permalink Flag Monday, January 23, 2006 08:45 AM
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