Europe's adoration of Obama not necessarily good

Like many Democrats, President Barack Obama has a serious man-crush on Europe. With government-sponsored health care, powerful labor unions, oppressive environmental policies, and high tax rates, Europe is everything that liberals want for the United States. Many, I'm sure, would prefer the shorter work week, envy the fancier food and clothing and would love to sit around in a turtleneck, eating granola and reading Marx all day.

Obama returns from his first European tour this week. The trip must have been an ego-booster for the president. Huge throngs of people, and even sometimes reporters practically chanted, "We're not worthy!" as Obama walked around.

The goal of this visit was supposed to be to shore up ties with our allies, but the tour ended up being one long apology to Europeans because we are not more like them.

At a town hall meeting in Strasbourg, France, Obama called the U.S. arrogant, dismissive and derisive. Yeah, Europe, sorry for bailing you out of two world wars and then helping you rebuild after them. We apologize for opposing the expansion of Soviet communism, for providing the bulk of NATO - which is much more useful to you than us - and now for offering you monetary help to end the financial crisis. That was all so arrogant of us.

Then it was off to the Czech Republic, where Obama merrily announced that he sought "a world without nuclear weapons." He might as well have gone a little further and called for the end of evil in general - it has about the same chance of happening. The cat's out of the bag on nukes, folks; we can't just suddenly pretend nobody knows how to make them.

Obama then said, "As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act." This implies, of course, that all of our nuclear problems stem from us dropping the bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. It ignores the fact that the Japanese and the Germans were developing such weapons at the same time.

A 1945 study by the Joint Chiefs of Staff estimated that the bombings saved more than 1 million lives - both American and Japanese - because of the high casualty toll an invasion of Japan would have caused. And don't forget the 60 years and counting of relative peace and prosperity under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Sorry, world — our bad.

During the election, I heard more than one Obama supporter say, "I just want the rest of the world to like us." It's true that increasing the world's respect for us would be a useful foreign policy goal. But while Obama's approval rating in Europe has reached 85 percent, it is only around 40 percent overall in the U.S., according to a February BBC poll. In the New York Times, the editor of a German newspaper wrote that Obama was popular in Europe because he was so un-American. So don't mistake Europe's adoration of Obama for respect toward his country.

Despite his rock-star crowds, Obama's trip failed to deliver on some important goals. Britain declined to spend more money for world financial recovery and NATO pledged to send only 5,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, while the U.S. is committing more 20,000 of its own. Obviously, Obama's popularity doesn't always sway Europe's leaders.

Don't get me wrong - we need the world's respect. But Obama should cultivate those feelings by standing true to the values that made us great, not apologizing for them.

Tim Hadachek is a junior in political science. Please send comments to opinion@spub.ksu.edu.