The limits of charm

President Bush has expressed his deep concern that the European Union is about to lift its ban on arms sales to China, the Washington Times reports. This is the most important story of President Bush’s visit to Europe, and one of the few serious ones being reported. “Charm offensives” may be fun to write about, but neither Condi Rice nor George Bush will be able to charm the Europeans out of their overriding foreign policy objective, which is to find a new partner with which to “counter-balance” American power.
John Kerry would have been better at charming the Europeans. But only because he would have been that partner.

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