FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

PARIS - I went to Luxembourg's US Military Cemetery to pay my respects as an old soldier and US Army veteran to the grave of George S. Patton, America's greatest fighting general of Word War II. Behind him, lay rows upon rows of graves of the soldiers of Patton's Third Army - Italian, Jewish and Irish boys from my hometown, New York City, and from Chicago, Colorado, Ohio and Montana - who died liberating Europe from Hitler.

A grim archipelago of American military cemeteries extends from nearby St. Avold, westward along the Meuse and Marne, all the way to Normandy. Here lie the young Americans who died in World Wars I and II fighting Europe's war.

As President George W. Bush visited Europe last week, he was met by a storm of personal abuse and anti-American invective from western Europeans who have clearly forgotten they were rescued in two world wars, and saved from Soviet invasion, by the very same America they now are bashing.

French newspapers called Bush a `warmonger,' and `Texas cowboy.' Britain's leftwing Guardian labeled the Bush Administration, `a presidency of dunces.' Germany's equally leftwing `Speigel' called the Bush entourage, `snarling, ugly Americans.' Much of Europe's media and many politicians described Bush as aggressive, trigger-happy, know-nothing, prisoner-executing, anti-abortion, Christian fundamentalist hick. Washington was accused by its best friends of high-handed unilateralism.

By contrast, Eastern Europeans, with fresh memories of Soviet occupation, greeted President Bush with warmth and appreciation. Europe's petulant outburst of anti-Americanism unfortunately obscured President Bush's most important statement: that there would be `no more Yaltas,' a vow that electrified Poles, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Estonians, and Latvians.

Western Europe has always had deep strains of anti-Americanism, but this week's orgy of Yankee-bashing has not been seen since the days of Ronald Reagan. Why? Two reasons.

First, as Edward Gibbon wrote in 1764 in his majestic `Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,' (The Greeks)`still preserving the prejudices, after they had lost the virtues of their ancestors, they affected to despise the unpolished manners of their Roman conquerors , while they were compelled to respect their superior wisdom and power.' He might as well have been describing feeble but snobbish Europe in 2001.

Second, the left today dominates Europe. Most European governments - Spain, Austria, and Italy excepted - are run by socialists, many in coalition with communists. Much of Europe's media, schools, and universities are in the hands of the left. French, Belgian and German neo-marxists vied to denounce Bush and all things American, from capital punishment, genetically altered foods, McDonalds, and anti-missile defenses to air pollution and movie violence. Europe's left wailed over the execution of mass murderer Timothy McVeigh, while totally ignoring China's execution of 560 prisoners over the past month.

Europe's socialist governments fear the continent will be infected by American ideas of free markets, lower taxes, smaller government, less regulations, and more competition. While accusing the Bush Administration of being beholden to big business, Europe's left kowtows to big public and private sector unions. Lower taxes mean smaller government, which the left - the party of government - considers anathema. Europe's ruling leftwing parties holds power through sweetheart deals with inefficient labor unions, political patronage jobs, and state support for academics, artists, journalists and other opinion-makers. Ironically, by slashing defense spending to the bone in favor of social programs, Europe's left has made the continent all the more reliant on US military power.

Recently, France's socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin, whose Trotskyist past just come to light, called for more and bigger government, more regulation, and more layers of bureaucracy. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fisher, another harsh critic of US policy, was deeply embarrassed by films of him battling police during his youth as a marxist street thug.

The left routinely scourges anyone threatening to upset Europe's socialist applecart as nazi racists, rightwing extremists, or trigger-happy aggressors - to whit: Austria's Georg Haider, Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, and now, visitor George Bush.

The Bush Administration deserves some blame for this ugly reception. Bush certainly acted high-handedly and deeply angered European allies by ignoring them when ditching the unworkable Kyoto environmental accords and proposing an anti-missile system. Profligate Americans use 30% more energy than ecology-sensitive Europeans. Europeans dismiss as silly Bush's claims that `rogue states' pose a missile threat, and view US Mideast policy as being held captive by special interest groups in America.

Europeans, who have become used to mushy bureaucratic talk from politicians, were shocked and upset by Bush's plain, blunt talk and folksy delivery. They didn't like being made to feel to feel irrelevant.

Instead of sending Secretary of State Colin Powell to gladhand around black Africa, an area of zero strategic interest to the US, Bush should have sent him before his trip to schmooze Europeans feelings and flatter their egos. Instead, Washington humiliated its Europe allies and is now getting blasted in return. The Bush Administration clearly has much to learn about diplomacy.

In dealing with Europe, the US is all too often arrogant - not the old British Empire's arrogance of absolute power - but one that comes more from ignorance of the geography, history, culture and sensibilities of prickly Europeans. For example, most Americans are simply unaware that France was the center of the civilized world from 1500-1940, and thus possess a deep knowledge of world and human affairs that `arriviste' Americans don't share.

Europeans stereotype Americans as uneducated, uncultured, overfed, loud-voiced, and ill-mannered children with huge military power. Americans stereotype Europeans as ingrates, effete, lazy, decadent fops who must be regularly rescued by American power. These stereotypes wax and wane, but right now Europe's leftists are re-energizing every anti-Americanism in an effort to prevent further intrusions of US capitalism on Europe's socialist shores.

Copyright: Eric S. Margolis 2001

`War at the Top of the World - The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Tibet' by Eric S. Margolis is now available in paperback at leading bookstores and online.

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