US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that trans-Atlantic divisions over the US-led war on Iraq were a thing of the past and the United Nations would play a vital role in that country’s future….Most of Powell’s speech went to praising ties between the United States and the EU and within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. “We are driven forward by common values,” he said, “and when we disagree it is usually over means rather than the ends.” [Agence France-Presse, 5/7/03]
Is he saying that because he thinks it’s true–in which case he doesn’t understand that the fundamental value of America is freedom and that of Europe isn’t–or because his wish for diplomatic solutions doesn’t allow him to say anything else?