Europe's youth take complex view of US

Its 'Iraq generation' moderates harsh views of US policy with admiration of American creativity and 'coolness.'

By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the August 13, 2007 edition

Page 1 of 3

Berlin and Paris - Negative attitudes in Europe about America hardened steadily during the Iraq war, particularly among Europeans under age 30.

Yet the harshest anti-US feelings may be peaking among Europe's young – giving way to more complex and ambiguous views of the US and its identity, interviews show.

Formative views among Europe's "next generation" have been shaped, if not seared, by a war lasting longer than World War II. Some call it an "Iraq generation," harking back to the "Vietnam generation" here in the 1960s. "The longer the war runs, the more intense the feelings of younger Germans," says Heinrich Kreft, a senior adviser for the Christian Democrats in Berlin. "I worry about future relations with the US."

Still, in dozens of interviews with Europeans under 30, a view of the United States marked by an often absolute disdain for the Iraq war and US foreign policy is evolving and broadening – with many acknowledging US creativity and "coolness" as well as negatives like arrogance.

Arno Borgers, a graduate student at Humboldt University in Berlin, says his friends think Iraq is a "huge mistake." Yet, "I grew up on America," he says. He discusses the Simpsons TV show like a screenwriter. He questions American military hard power, but is smitten by American soft power, with subcultures like hip-hop.

"We are starting to understand how complex America is, mainly from the media, TV, movies, and music," he says. "We separate America from the White House."

"We've started to rethink things," says Céline Féraudy, who works at a Paris office for historical monuments. "We don't see America only as the war, though we did for some time. We think it is creative. We love the Apple Mac, New York City, the counterculture, and the feeling that you can more easily make a career."

A June poll by the French-American Foundation shows that French ages 20-34 have never had more mixed feelings about the US. Some 60 percent do not characterize their views as strongly positive or negative, the highest level since the polls started in 1986.

Page 1 | 2 | 3 | Next Page