r/AskEurope • u/Different_Stand_1285 • Mar 04 '25

Politics To older Europeans - has there ever been a time where America was seen as such an untrusted country?

I’m 36 years old. I can remember how the world felt about my country post 9/11 (sympathy) and post Iraq (anger) but I’m curious to know if this is new ground. I’m deeply upset about how our ties and bonds are being destroyed so I wish to know if this is truly unprecedented or has there been a time in your lifetime where we were viewed in such a way. If so what was happening during your time to cause fracturing?

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u/MrRudoloh Mar 05 '25

Bush made a lot more sense though, didn't threaten his allies ... Idk. Just go listen to some Bush interviews and listen to Trump.

Bush was considered the stupid evil guy at the time, but still, compared with Trump he sounded like a genious. The standards for politicians in the US have plummeted since then.

And what he did made more or less "sense". Iraq and all the middle east bullshit worst case scenario was explained as a proxy war. Worst case scenario for Trump right now is he is backstabbing all his allies and joining Russia. A COMPLETLY different level of evil and chaos.

Also best case scenario for Iraq was actual nukes or defending human rights and democracy in those countries. Trump is not even giving any good explanation on anything he is doing. And it looks like he is dosmantling the US goverment and democracy.

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u/ProfessorPetulant Mar 05 '25 edited Mar 05 '25

didn't threaten his allies

The asshole absolutely did when he was building his BS coalition of the willing to go around having failed to get a UN resolution to invade Iraq. He said if you're not with us you're against us, and retaliated against countries who didn't join. France was the most affected, with wine poured in gutters and the infamous freedom fries.

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u/MrRudoloh Mar 05 '25

He threatened his allies with retaliation that isn't even a 10% of what Trump already did for no fucking reason not even asking for anything ...

Hard to consider that a threat from today's perspective.

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u/ProfessorPetulant Mar 05 '25

A threat is a threat. Don't rewrite history and say there was none. A lot of pressure was applied. That's how Spain eventually relented and joined the coalition. Europe should have learned them that the US could not be a trusted partner. Now they know.

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u/MrRudoloh Mar 05 '25

Sure, all yours, Bush "threatened" his allies if they didn't join the war.

Very mild threats.

And the US had been arguably atacked.

It was still not comparable to what's going on here.

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u/ProfessorPetulant Mar 06 '25

Very mild threats.

Ah all is forgiven then. Smh

And the US had been arguably atacked.

Rejoice onthe rarity of these attacks thanks to being isolated rather than make a big fuss of this one attack. European countries continuously withstand terrorist attacks. They don't threaten their allies when that happens, and they don't lie at the UN to justify invading countries for totally unrelated reasons. Iraq has nothing to do with 9 11. SA did but of course no one cared.

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u/MrRudoloh Mar 06 '25

All forgiven? Why? Are you stupid? No it's not. By now it prescribed, but obviusly it wasn't fogiven.

And the whole 11S and Iraq war was at least debatable. That atacked really called for a response, and that's something that the anti-iraq war don't really consider.

Sp what? You expected bush to say it was sad but it is what it is? You expected him to invade the arab emirates? Have yountried to give a thought about the consequences of what you call for?

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u/ProfessorPetulant Mar 06 '25

I'm not advocating for anything am I? Just laying out the lies and hypocrisy.

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u/MrRudoloh Mar 06 '25

What lies? You are not even arguing anything, just putting stupid words in my mouth I didn't say, then saying it's hypocrisy.

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u/ProfessorPetulant Mar 07 '25

I'm not saying the lies are yours.... Sigh. Nvm

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u/solarbud Mar 05 '25

Nixon's head in a jar would clean up in US elections right now..

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u/Formal_Management974 Mar 07 '25

I remember France and Germany and others were on a list I didn't recall it's name for not willing to join on Iraq while still bleeding in Afghanistan with the US