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For many Europeans, though, a U.N. war resolution addresses something more than merely Iraq; it's a means to maintain global order and international law. No one seriously doubts that Saddam's regime is indefensible, but Europeans want any such judgment to issue from the Security Council, not from Washington. They share a consensus that international agreement is a good way to order the jungle of world politics. Bush seems to regard international institutions as a nuisance and thinks Europe hides behind legalisms to pretend that brutal force isn't sometimes necessary in a messy world. But if Washington acts without a U.N. blessing, it sets an ominous precedent--if it's O.K. for the U.S. to use force whenever it chooses, then why can't other states claim the same privilege?
4 INVADING IRAQ DISRUPTS THE WAR ON TERROR
Europeans worry that the U.S. hasn't carefully thought through the conflict but has blithely put its faith in best-case assumptions. U.N. diplomats hear rumblings from Afghanistan that al-Qaeda will strike there when the U.S. strikes Iraq; the terrorists could just as easily retaliate in Europe or America. People on the Continent think that vital collaborators needed to stamp out the extremists will quit cooperating, especially in the Muslim countries that constitute the terror war's front line. The U.S., advised Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, "must be careful not to take unilateral steps that might threaten the unity of the entire [anti]terrorism coalition." Would-be terrorists are all too likely to embrace violence as a reaction to what they see as an unjust American war on Islam. At the least, think Europeans, a war with Iraq will absorb energy and resources that might otherwise be concentrated against al-Qaeda.
While Washington proposes that the demise of Saddam will lead to a new era of democracy throughout the Middle East, Europeans think it could just as well spur chaos. Like German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, many predict "disastrous consequences for long-term regional stability." They worry about the consequences if moderate Arab regimes are undermined, if Turkey is threatened by Kurdish separatism, if the West further alienates the people of the Muslim world.
5 COWBOY BUSH IS BACK, AND HIS STYLE GRATES