President Bush stands accused in foreign capitals and the liberal American press of unilateralism.
He has rejected elite European opinion on the Kyoto environmental treaty, which is an irretrievable mess; the International Criminal Court, which would subject American diplomats and troops to criminal review by global kangaroo courts and now, Iraq, where pacifists seem to be arguing that Saddam Hussein is more trustworthy and peace-loving than the American president.
The United States stands apart on these issues because we as a nation still believe in such things as the value of human dignity and we're willing to fight for them. Continental Europe, in contrast, has lost the capacity to believe in belief. It meanders from fad to fad, with a sense of desultory ennui and an underlying crust of moral cowardice.
Of course the U.S. wants as many friends as possible. But what distinguishes us from the pack is the fact that we won't abandon our principles just to cut a deal. And if that's unilateralism, I'm all for it.
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