Mark Steyn: "US policy on Europe? No giggling"

Two of the people I most love to read at present are (as you may have gathered or soon will) are Victor Davis Hanson and Mark Steyn. VDH for his perspective and background and his clear writing and Steyn for his brashness, impudence, and erudite remarks.
Steyn's latest: "...the official State Department briefing paper on the European Rapid Reaction Force, the European Constitution, the European negotiations with Iran, etc. ('When these subjects come up, US policy is to nod politely and try not to giggle... "

"...In Prague in 2002, the President told fellow Nato members: "We share common values – the common values of freedom, human rights and democracy." In a post-Communist world, these are vague, unobjectionable generalities to everyone except the head hackers in the Sunni Triangle. It's when you try to flesh them out that it all gets more complicated. The reality is that Europe's very specific troubles – economic, demographic, political – derive from Europe, not America. And, if the member states of the EU are determined to enshrine constitutionally and Continent-wide the "rights" that have proved so disastrous for them as individual nations, there's not a lot America can do about it except stand well clear. Or as Mr Bush put it in his Telegraph interview yesterday: "No, I'm not going to comment [laughter]" – evidently still having trouble with the "no giggling" rule."

Always read all of Mark Steyn as you learn and usually laugh out loud. Like VDH he is published everywhere so here is Steyn's homepage. He bills himself as "The One-Man Content Provider" and actually he is almost.