European autonomy - military, technological, economic, and financial - is beginning to take shape as Europe hedges against current and future fluctuations in [U.S.] policy.
The shift now underway is unlikely to take the form of a dramatic collapse of American power in the Gulf. It is more likely to be subtler and, for the region, more unsettling.
One side talks about the socialists, the other about the rubes. In both cases, it is often an instance of the same fractious contempt and deep-seated enmity.