cybercore
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2009
When Osama bin Laden's men flew airliners into New York's World Trade Center 10 years ago, they drew an outpouring of solidarity from Europe, captured by a French newspaper under the headline "We are all Americans now."
It didn't last. A decade of wars has followed that strained old alliances -- few in Paris will forget the U.S. jibes about "cheese-eating surrender monkeys." And now bin Laden's death, unarmed, at the hands of American troops has brought a new wave of contrasting emotional responses across the Atlantic.
Jubilant Americans poured into Times Square to chant "USA, USA, USA!" and hit the Internet to snap up T-shirts reading "We Got Him" and "Hey Osama, Tell Hitler We Said Hello."
Europeans, also targeted by al Qaeda, kept satisfaction more contained, even if tabloid headlines were no less triumphant. And, crucially, not a few began to question the legality and morality of the killing and the risk of revenge attacks.
That attitude has simply outraged many Americans.
More Analysis: Bin Laden again unites, then divides, U.S. and Europe
It didn't last. A decade of wars has followed that strained old alliances -- few in Paris will forget the U.S. jibes about "cheese-eating surrender monkeys." And now bin Laden's death, unarmed, at the hands of American troops has brought a new wave of contrasting emotional responses across the Atlantic.
Jubilant Americans poured into Times Square to chant "USA, USA, USA!" and hit the Internet to snap up T-shirts reading "We Got Him" and "Hey Osama, Tell Hitler We Said Hello."
Europeans, also targeted by al Qaeda, kept satisfaction more contained, even if tabloid headlines were no less triumphant. And, crucially, not a few began to question the legality and morality of the killing and the risk of revenge attacks.
That attitude has simply outraged many Americans.
More Analysis: Bin Laden again unites, then divides, U.S. and Europe
