All these wrongs transformed America into a pariah state in the eyes of progressive and liberal Europeans. These days are no more. Now that Bush is gone and Washington has a much more appealing new face, Europeans should be mindful of what they have wished for.
This is no longer about high expectations in Europe but similar expectations in Washington. Much has been said over the last couple of months, since the historic election of the first African-American president, about the need to manage global expectations. It was a mostly one-sided debate about high hopes in Europe and the potential for disappointment for those awaiting a drastically different American superpower. Strangely absent from these discussions are high expectations of Europe in a post-Bush Washington. Therefore, today if we are to talk about disappointment, it is worth asking on which side of the Atlantic such frustration might set in first.
There are already clear symptoms that Americans will be the first to be disillusioned. President Obama is doing his part by setting a new tone for American leadership. As he promised during his campaign, Barack Obama proclaimed that America is ready to talk to its enemies, countries such as Iran, if they unclench their fists. He also announced that America was ready to lead once more with moral authority. During his first week in office Obama began to deliver by pledging to rapidly close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and by giving his first media interview to a Muslim TV network, Al Arabiya, during which he said all the right things.
So much for not fulfilling high expectations. Quite the opposite, Obama is displaying a stellar performance. Most Europeans wanted the US to continue to exercise global leadership, and President Obama has given them more than they expected in his first couple of weeks. And now that Obama has begun to deliver, who should have high expectations? Old Europe or new Washington?
Soon it will be Europe that will need to worry about managing US expectations. We already hear from Europe that Washington must not go too fast by challenging those cherished European sensibilities by asking too much of its allies in places such as Afghanistan. President Obama's decisions to talk to Iran and withdraw from Iraq have won much applause. But his determination to reinforce NATO's effort in Afghanistan is cause for foreboding among those old Europeans circles. When President Obama sent his vice president and other top emissaries to the Munich international security conference last weekend to seek help with the war in Afghanistan, the NATO allies appeared less than enthusiastic.
This time, it will not be Iraq but the much more legitimate NATO effort in Afghanistan that will be the litmus test for the transatlantic alliance. The Europeans will not have a legitimate excuse to hide behind since this is a war that they supported from the get-go. The Obama administration is expected to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan because NATO forces are losing ground and desperately need more manpower. It is only normal that Europe should help, especially now that there is globally admired American leadership. Yet, to the dismay of new Washington, old Europe is proving just as reluctant to contribute more soldiers or money to the NATO-led operation as they were during President George W. Bush's last years in the White House.
The Washington Post recently reported that French Defense Minister Hervé Morin said, "There is no question, for now, of considering extra reinforcements." Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende made clear that his country would start drawing down its 1,770 troops in Afghanistan next year. And German officials have also ruled out sending more soldiers beyond a parliamentary decision last year to expand the force to 4,500. The sight of Europeans expecting that the United States will close Guantanamo, sign up to climate-change treaties, accept European Union leadership -- which provides nothing more than encouragement -- on key issues is likely to prove American neoconservatives such as Robert Kagan right. Who knows, maybe Europeans are really from Venus. We'll soon find out, and I'm afraid it won't be a pretty sight for Americans watching from Mars.
