Just what the hell is this supposed to mean? In a Post article about the dismay with which George Bush’s re-election is being greeted around the world:

“America has missed a great chance to reunite with the world,” said Graham Allen, a member of the British Parliament from the ruling Labor Party. “I fear the tragedy for all of us is that if America doesn’t reach out to its friends, then its enemies will reach out to America.”

Is he saying that a failure of the United States to bow to the will of its ‘friends’ — by which, I presume, he means the throbbing socialist proto-empire in Europe — the U.S. will be attacked by Arab terrorists? Does he mean to imply that Europe is able to influence whether violent attacks on the United States and on American interests will take place?

It’s a mistake to read too much into the bluster of a politician, but what people say in unguarded moments can be telling; and this seems to suggest that Graham Allen, at least, shares my view that the real nature of our current conflict involves the EU and the terrorists on, ultimately, the same side against the United States.