BARBARA AMIEL REPORTS an interesting conversation in The Telegraph:

It was left to the head of Fox News, Roger Ailes, to get to the key point.

Mr Ailes was taken with Mr Prodi’s declaration that the EU would not give any money to the reconstruction of Iraq. “Did the Europeans realise,” he asked, “that American taxpayers spent billions reconstructing Europe?” “They did,” replied Mr Prodi expansively, “but friends could differ.”

“Did the Europeans realise,” continued Ailes, unabashed, “that their position in supporting the elimination of sanctions against Saddam when he was in power and refusing to aid rebuilding Iraq when he was gone, appeared ‘odd’?”

Mr Prodi’s English became more Italianate and his arm gestures more expansive. He appeared to be conducting Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries . It was not the case that the EU did not want to help reconstruction, he said, but there was no legitimate government in Iraq to which the EU could give any money.

Ailes continued: “The United States has some reservations about organisations the EU gives money to as well as regimes it supports. In Iraq we are trying to build a new government with some democratic standards. Why won’t you help us?” he asked. “No, no, no,” Prodi said theatrically. “We will not give money when we don’t know to whom.” Which of course explained the hundreds of millions given to the Palestinian Authority by the EU. They must have known it would end up in Mr Arafat’s Swiss bank account. I had fleeting visions of jolly African dictators cashing their Euro-cheques.

One sympathises with Mr Prodi. If you have the dual goal of acting against the US while maintaining the image of acting in friendship, one’s charms get stretched. The problem is the way that the EU developed and is continuing to develop. Now it stands for Western values in name only. In substance, it stands for accommodation with those forces of the world that are the opposite of such values.

Indeed.