Word: strikeingly
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Just as important as the diplomatic offensive was the fact that the Western allies presented an almost united front. Only one week earlier, when Washington mounted a nighttime air strike on Libya, its most devastating bombing attack since Viet Nam, the U.S. had been actively supported by none of its European friends except British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Rifts in the alliance still remain, as evidenced by the European Community's refusal to close the People's Bureaus altogether, which Washington and London had urged (see following story). Nonetheless, the diplomatic assault on Libyans suggested that these differences...
While the sudden air strike strained relations among America's allies, Libya was equally at odds with a few of its friends. "The Kremlin got some real heat last week from its Arab allies for not showing more support for Gaddafi," said a Western diplomat in Moscow. To correct that impression perhaps, Pravda printed an interview with the maverick Libyan last week, in which he gave lavish thanks to Party Chief Mikhail Gorbachev for his support. Nevertheless, the Soviets remain wary about attaching themselves too closely to a Libyan regime that is mercurial at best. Moscow zestfully pounced...
Despite the Administration's tough policy toward Libya, its position on other countries linked to terrorism, particularly Syria and Iran, sometimes appeared confused. In an interview with Washington columnists, President Reagan seemed to indicate that the U.S. was ready to strike against those countries if it had evidence tying them to terrorist acts. In fact, evidence gathered by British officials in the thwarted El Al bombing has pointed toward Syrian involvement. Damascus, however, maintains a mutual friendship treaty with the Soviet Union, which means that an attack on Syria could result in a superpower face-off. Though Administration officials later...
Perhaps the strongest case for Western Europe's opposition to the U.S. retaliation is the military one. European officers, indeed even some senior NATO figures, argue that the U.S. strike was not strong enough to attain its military objectives. It neither destroyed nor destabilized the Gaddafi regime. It may, instead, have compelled moderate Arab governments to rally behind Gaddafi. Mitterrand and Chirac complained to U.S. Envoy Vernon Walters that a limited bombing raid could stir up a new wave of Islamic extremism. "With a victory like that, who needs a defeat?" said Dominique Moïsi, a French strategic expert...
Despite widespread opposition to the U.S. strike, a silent minority of Europeans approved. Former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing spoke for them when he recalled how he sent French paratroops to quell an insurgency in Zaïre in 1978. On that occasion, he noted gratefully, "our forces were conveyed from Corsica to Zaïre by American planes." Giscard and Thatcher showed that not all Europeans have forgotten how allies, even when they disagree, sometimes have to stand by each other...