Rush Limbaugh: Placement of European Allies' Joint Statement is a Political Message in Itself
On Monday, Rush Limbaugh came back for one day in the midst of a planned vacation to provide his listeners with his take on the major events of the past week. He made one particularly interesting comment in connection with the January 30 statement from the leaders of eight European countries supporting the U.S. position on the impending war with Iraq: The statement's placement in The Wall Street Journal was, in and of itself, an important political statement.
According to Limbaugh, in the past, this sort of open letter would have appeared in The New York Times. However, that newspaper has made no secret of its view that Europe is united in oppsition to the U.S.'s effort to depose the current government in Iraq as soon as possible. Furthermore, many conservatives feel that the Times' news stories are written from a viewpoint that excludes evidence that contradicts their editorial position. So, the conclusion that Limbaugh made is nothing if not reasonable.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page also pointed out the controversy over the joint statement that has arisen in liberal media circles:
Our sin seems to be that we assisted in exposing as fraudulent the conventional wisdom that France and Germany speak for all of Europe, and that all of Europe is now anti-American. Those ideas were always false, but they were peddled as true because they served the political purposes of those, both in Europe and America, who oppose President Bush on Iraq.
The notion that France and Germany speak for all of Europe is especially absurd, akin to assuming that New York City and Washington, D.C., speak for all of America.