Eve of Correction
Recently there as been a lot of doom and gloom in the media (or at least certain quarters of the media) about the collapse of the transatlantic alliance. I really don't think that we actually have to worry that much about it. Its not that we shouldn't be concerned about unnecessairly angering our allies, its simply that the chasm is not unbridgeable. Our allies will march in the street and give speeches attacking our policy, the war will wrap up and life will go back ot normal, or something like that. Reagan also raised the ire of many a Western European with his deployment of Pershing missiles and the alliance survived. There is no reason to think that it will disintegrate over this current disagreement either. In fact there are some signs that it almost certainly won't. Germany, which has opposed the war with great vigor is actually aiding the United States by providing German AWACs for our with Iraq. I've also heard that France might change its posistion on the war if Saddam uses chemical weapons. The offer in itself is a good sign and if France ever actually comes to our aid, that would be even better. This is not to say that we shouldn't try to minimize the harm we do to our alliances, its just that I don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.