[Skunk]

Originally posted by XXXXX: Where does this feeling come from? It's difficult to say, but perhaps te most important factor is that Europeans don't want to be followers, they would like to decide on their own

Actually, they would rather decide TOGETHER - otherwise there wouldn't be an EU. We decide important issues together and we do not take unilateral action esp. when it will hurt all and only benefit one state.

Originally posted by : Add the fact that the pacifist movement is really strong in Europe, and that among the true pacifists (the majority) hide those whose idea of peace is a bit strange - that is if the war is done by USA or Israel is a crime against humanity, if it's done by others either it's a "liberation war" (against capitalism, of course) or it is simply forgotten. These latter "pacifists", on 9/12 were already saying that the USA had deserved 9/11 because of their arrogant imperialism. Nowadays, they pledge support for the "freedom fighters" in Iraq and the legitimate struggle for the destruction of the zionist evil. And the fearsome thing is, they are gaining consensus.

THERE IS NO PACIFIST MOVEMENT in Europe - there is a JUSTICE movement.

If Iraq invades Kuwait - THAT'S WRONG
If the UK invades Iraq - THAT'S WRONG
If a Palestinian straps on bombs and kills innocent people - THAT'S WRONG
If an Israeli warplane bombs a civilian appartment block - THAT'S WRONG.

As Almudena Grandes put it so succinctly when speaking about the Madrid blast where she has her home:
"We would have felt pain even if ETA had been guilty; we did not hate ETA any more or less than we hated al-Qaida. We hated murderers infinitely, all murderers...

That's the concensus that is gaining momentum - that justice is universal and not determined by the victor or the most powerful. And the more it gains a foothold in the european psyche, the more proud I am to be european.