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8/13/07

CSMonitor: Europe's youth take complex view of US - by Robert Marquand

For the complete report by the csmonitor.com click on this link

Europe's youth take complex view of US - by Robert Marquand

Negative attitudes in Europe about America hardened steadily during the Iraq war, particularly among Europeans under age 30. Yet the harshest anti-US feelings may be peaking among Europe's young – giving way to more complex and ambiguous views of the US and its identity, interviews show. There is sheer exhaustion about war news, a certain passion among students not to hold absolute views on anything, and a cynicism about politics in Europe. "Every day, 48 people die in Baghdad, it seems," says Charlotte Boulanger, who is trying to start an e-newsletter in Paris on human rights. "You get angry, but what can you do? I think everyone is now waiting. It is easy to blame America for everything, and a lot of us do. But sometimes it is a cover for our own failures."

Younger Europeans say America defines much of the way the world thinks. Many say they are swimming in an ocean of American media. "[We] feel that countries like the US, which impose their culture on others, are more difficult to respect," says Bruno, a French graduate student listening to "extreme metallica" in the Luxembourg Gardens. "A lot of people are sick of Americanization … we want new technology from America, but it comes with American commercial attitudes." But, he adds, "Young Americans seem to have a desire for renewal ... and this diversity is something I like."

Boulanger, whose mother is Finnish and father is French, thinks a stronger Europe is an alternative to a US global model. "We think about America as the No. 1 power.... We feel it around us every day. We all know what is happening in California, we hear about the Middle East, we know what [Secretary of State] Condi Rice is doing every day. But we have no idea what [EU foreign policy chief] Javier Solana is doing."

Note EU-Digest: "The report by the CSMonitor should be obligatory reading material for every European politician. The comment by Boulanger "hits the nail on the head". If the EU wants to succeed, its leaders must show far more enthusiasm for the European dream. Young EU Citizens who see one of their politicians munch on hamburgers and hot-dogs with a lame-duck, Iraq war tainted President Bush in Maine, certainly will have their doubts about Europe's place in the world as an independent political and economic entity, or the quality and vision of its political leadership."

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