Duck Season

Icelandics to Bush - Don't leave us defenseless:

Since the end of the Cold War, the Air Force has been pressing to pull its jets out of Iceland. In 1994, the Clinton administration withdrew eight fighters but agreed to keep four permanently at the Keflavik Naval Air Station, near Reykjavik. The two sides were to renegotiate the deal in 2001, but talks were postponed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and a U.S. strategic review. Now the Bush administration wants to withdraw the remaining four F-15 fighter jets, along with five rescue helicopters and two refueling planes.

While U.S. officials argue that the threat in the North Atlantic is no longer what it was during the Cold War, Icelandic officials warn of leaving their country without any air defense.

"September 11th wasn't supposed to happen, either," Agustsson said. "An enemy always looks for the weakest link."

Mindful that the Bush administration already is suffering badly strained relations with such major NATO allies as France and Germany over the invasion of Iraq, officials in Reykjavik have emphasized the supportive role played in recent years by Oddsson's government. Iceland has contributed to peacekeeping operations in the Balkans and Afghanistan and, most recently, pledged nearly $4 million in humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Iraq.

But the flap over the planes "has created the most serious crisis in U.S.-Icelandic relations since the early 1970s, when a left-center government sought to abrogate the defense treaty and oust the Americans," said Valur Ingimundarson, a foreign relations expert at the University of Iceland.

Isn't this another insanely relevant example of the Bush team shooting itself in the foot? Granted Iceland isn't by far a key strategic ally, but aren't projects like Iraq more easily done when we can line up all of these little allies to pitch in? Exactly how vital are these five planes to the US global strategy? Did we try and negotiate the base down to three planes?

On the other hand, let's see what actual european has to say about Bush. From a Time Magazine interview with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi:

The U.S. has taken a lot of criticism in Europe lately. What are the important things about America that some Europeans do not understand? Some Europeans don't understand that the world changed radically after Sept. 11. On Nov. 10, 2001, in the most beautiful piazza in Rome, we organized a rally in solidarity with an attacked and offended nation and flew the U.S. flag. We were the only ones to do it, and we are proud. I think we are making some headway, though, with the idea that anti- Americanism and anti-globalization are not progressive politics but are pure ideological trash.

I think the Icelandics would rightly agree with Silvio on that last point.

Both links via 'The Corner'.