PRESIDENT BUSH needs Europe. He knows it himself by now. He started a war in defiance of international law and didn’t pay any attention to the Europeans, and with that he split the continent into a „new“ (good) Europe and an „old“ (bad) one.

Now he ought to convince Europeans that he is not planning another war (for example against Syria or Iran), while at the same time professing to think highly of the opinion of European nations and to value them. The freedom that Mr. Bush proclaimed in his inauguration speech cannot be achieved and maintained without the help of the Europeans. First and foremost he has to convince Europe that he is not planning a new war, which shouldn’t be difficult.

After all, his troops can only with the greatest difficulty halfway pacify Iraq.

Elfriede Jelinek: No New Wars. In: New York Times, 20.2.2005.