SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!!!

W is off to Europe and there is no shortage of advice. The NY Times asks a group of notable Euros to offer their opinion on how the US can win back the Euros. First there is the the absurd or delusional: Bono wants more attention and aid for Africa, a Nobel Prize winner in literature (her books blow) wishes for us to sit around and sing "Kumbaya" (not really, but that's what she's saying), a French expert wants a reformed NATO with the Euro's taking up their fair share of defense (that hasn't happened since 1919) and a German wants a Security Council Seat for Europe . Can you just imagine how long it would take for the Euro rep at the Council to vote on anything? There is still some common sense in here one writer asks Bush to stay true, and Robert Skidlesky (an economist that writes well) urges W to talk about the dollar.

In other papers Jim Hoagland does not think that W should expect much from the Euros, neither does a German writer in the LA Times. The LA Times also does a quick 'round the world survey to show how politicos have used their relations (good or bad) with the US to get ahead. Daalder and Kupchan, not really big Bush fans, try to tell him how to make nice with the Euros...treat them as one entity. They kind of go overboard on the Euro's hard work with Iran...it has accomplished nothing. A former Clintonite recognizes a shift in the Bush Admin, but puts the entire onus on fixing things on the Bushies (more multilateral with the threat of Iran, completely unilateral on N. Korea).

Awesome piece on Rafiq Hariri, the assassinated former Lebanese PM. Nora Boustany who wrote it is originally from Beirut and spent 26 years covering Lebanon. The LA Times explains Syria's hold on Lebanon. The Council on Foreign Relations also has a great recap of how Syria got into Lebanon and what it all means. Thomas Friedman is getting a little giddy about a "Baghdad Spring" and that the Arab Street may not jump when their local despot asks them to.