Bashing “Old Europe”

I admired Anne Applebaum’s book Gulag: A History, but she is now merely a mouthpiece for Washington’s neoconservative establishment.  No doubt her husband has had a negative influence on her thinking (Applebaum’s husband is Poland’s right-wing Defense Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who also serves in the neocon American Enterprise Institute, the same institute that essentially invented the current Iraq war).  In her WaPo column this week, Applebaum bashes "Old Europe" for its response to the Iraq Study Group report, basically accusing France and Germany of "gloating" instead of enthusastically committing troops for the wonderful neocon delusion of one last surge (i.e. escalation) to the glorious cause.  Here is my Letter to the Editor, which the Washington Post elected not to publish:

In her column Anne Applebaum accuses Germans of  "gloating" over the Iraq
Study Group report. Did she really follow the  reaction in Berlin? For
the most part, Germans welcomed the realistic  assessment the ISG put
forward concerning the actual situation in Iraq, and they  enthusiastically
endorsed the recommendation that the US engage in discussions  with its
adversaries Iran and Syria. In fact, within hours after the ISG  report
was released, Carsten Voigt, the German government’s coordinator of
US-Germany Relations, offered Germany’s assistance through its diplomatic
channels in initiating these discussions.

Applebaum also implies that Germany basically  ignored the Holocaust denial
conference that took place in Tehran last  week. Nothing could be further
from the truth. Appearing along side  Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
German chancellor Angela Merkel said "I  would like to make clear that we
reject with all our strength the conference  taking place in Iran about the
supposed nonexistence of the  Holocaust,"

The truth is, there are no good options for the  United States and Europe
in Iraq. France and Germany both warned that the  Iraq invasion would be a
mistake of historic proportions. This has turned  out to be true. To now
blame "Old Europe" for America’s self-inflicted  wound is ridiculous.

Applebaum’s column is a contribution to the neoconservative resurrection of the "stabbed in the back" narrative (see my post Dolchstosslegende Redux) where America’s failure in Iraq is blamed on European appeasers, the "liberal media" and anti-war Democrats.