Europe Welcomes Bush With Dripping Sarcasm

This BBC report is a delightful piece of (very British) understatement and subtle innuendo:

In the major speech of his European visit, President Bush made some effort to accommodate European sensitivities - principally over the Middle East - but his main aim was to present his own agenda...

Whether Europeans respond with great enthusiasm remains to be seen.

The traditional EU approach to changing the world is less declaratory. It prefers to work by example and argument. For Mr Bush, that is not enough. He prefers pressure...

Europeans tend not to use phrases like: "Terrorists will not stop the march of freedom." Mr Bush does...

The biggest cracks have been over Iraq and here he sought to look ahead, referring rather blandly to the divisions as "passing disagreement of governments." There was no admission of any fault, over intelligence or invasion.

Indeed, Iraq was presented as the "world's newest democracy" in need of help - as if it had sprung up in peace and enthusiasm, like the countries of Eastern Europe after communism.