Hersh On European Opposition To Bush

A few years ago William Greider wrote a great article for the Nation about what Europe might do to restrain the Bush administration. As Steven Bodzin has pointed out in the comments section here, this subject was also addressed by Seymour Hersh in his talk at Berkeley.

Here's what Hersh said, as transcribed by Bodzin. This section begins at 1:08:34.

If Bush gets in, what's going to happen, I think, he's going to escalate. I think Europe's gonna change. The UN's gonna change because Europe's going to unite against us. The Germans and the French will definitely lead. I think the Brits, even with Blair, I think Blair's beginning to soften all the way now, he's probably going to get reelected. I don't know what's gonna happen in Australia, but that guy might lose, the pro-war guy, but in any case, Blair will probably get to be reelected. But I think he's softening. Europe's going to be a new collective against us. Against Bush. There's that much anger against him now. It's really serious.

And I think the other thing that will happen is that the Europeans might do what I KNOW some of their foreign ministers are thinking. This I know personally. I know first hand. They think it's time, if we're going to get the Middle East resolved, it's got to come, to start with Israel and Palestine, they think it's time to take it away from us. We're not the legitimate interlocutors anymore. (applause) Well, yeah.

But tell that to Schroeder. Schroeder's too weak to do it. Schroeder has a very weak campaign coming. He's got a weak very right-wing candidate. If Schroeder does better in the next election, if Schroeder feels stronger, and Bush is reelected, and he continues this madness, which he's going to do, he is absolutely going to do it, he is going to believe that whatever the cost to him in his judgment in history, the bodybags, he's going to carry this war. He's going to bomb and bomb, because he's got no other options. I think the Europeans are actually going to become a very violent bloc against us. And that's going to be very interesting.