Why I like New Europe

The US and UK saved the French from the Nazis 60 years ago, and the French elites still haven't forgiven us (this is in contrast with many of the actual French people outside of Paris, like those on the Atlantic coast). The Belgians still cannot accept the fact that their crimes in central Africa make Soviet gulags look hospitable. And the US and UK saved the Germans from themselves, and the Germans still cannot accept it.

But some countries both know the truth of subjugation and who helped them out of their shackles: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania (check out the number of those who have helped in Iraq). That's why its nice when The Monk reads this:

Thousands of Slovaks defied swirling snow and a bitter wind to wait for several hours to hear Mr Bush speak in the heart of their capital, Bratislava.

"We love him," said Arlena Turceanova, a 47-year-old lawyer, bursting with the pride felt by many Slovaks that Mr Bush chose their little country for his third and last stop. "He is president from a great country. It is wonderful that he comes here."

The Slovak prime minister, Mikulas Dzurinda, set the tone when he introduced Mr Bush to the crowd with an implicit comparison to the late Ronald Reagan, who devoted much of his presidency to combating and denouncing the Soviet Union. For the White House, it was a reassuring reminder that Mr Bush's stock remains high in New Europe, as Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, famously described the more recent East European members of the EU and Nato.

And even more important, the leaders of New Europe still have a geopolitical outlook that squares with reality, unlike Chirac, Schroder and much of the EUrocracy, as Slovak President Mikulas Dzurinda showed:

Mr. Dzurinda responded by telling the journalists, including one from CNN, that he was "shocked" to see media outlets like CNN and the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) showing "only American soldiers killing people. But nobody was able to show Saddam Hussein, who killed many, many thousands of Iraqi people."

"It was impossible to see a real picture of this regime," he lamented. "And the result is the public is one day strongly against Bush. 'Bush loves war,' he's 'new terrorist,' and so on and so on."

The prime minister predicted that it is "only a question of time when people in Slovakia, in Germany, in European countries, will understand more that this activity were necessary. And the world, without Saddam Hussein, is much more democratic than before."

HT: No Pasaran