DAVID WARREN offers some thoughts on Bush and the Europeans:

The problem at this juncture is indeed one of political sophistication. The U.S. understands where the Europeans are coming from, but not vice versa. Yet while there are genuine splits within European opinion, there are no real splits on the U.S. side. (Lapses in etiquette are accumulating everywhere.) . . .

In Rome, Mr. Bush will attend a summit that will mark the formal inclusion of Russia within the NATO decision-making structure. (The poor Europeans: they used to look to the U.S. to save them from the Russians, and now the Americans and Russians are getting along.) He will also have an audience with Pope John Paul II at which neither will mention recent sex abuse scandals involving Roman priests.

But before that, on Monday, the U.S. Memorial Day, President Bush will visit the beaches in Normandy, where so many U.S. soldiers fell, in a noble battle to free Europe from the original Fascist menace, two generations ago. It is the U.S. that is now under attack, and the Europeans being asked to return the favour.

He has some interesting observations about how the Saudis and Egyptians are beginning to catch on to the real game, too.