Is there any depth to your assertion? Or is it just a passive-aggressive swipe to denigrate Europe(ans) while derailing deeper discussion about critiques of the United States?
I will give you credit for acknowledging the "backward"/"modern" difference. The most important difference is that in the European "client regimes" (to use your language), they at least purport to maintain a semblance of democracy and human rights standards for their constituents. In that respect, call the convergent evolution towards the American-style government policy, a "client" or "vassal" state type of relationship if you'd like, but at least it's one in which (at a minimum) a superficial level of fairness is maintained (i.e., in contrast to sharia law countries).
Poland jumped to my mind as well, but at least there is some public pushback on the issue within European states and in the European Union. [1] The United States government itself, and the Middle Eastern countries that are on their "friends list" have been quiet about it, as far as I've seen.
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Is there any depth to your assertion? Or is it just a passive-aggressive swipe to denigrate Europe(ans) while derailing deeper discussion about critiques of the United States?
I will give you credit for acknowledging the "backward"/"modern" difference. The most important difference is that in the European "client regimes" (to use your language), they at least purport to maintain a semblance of democracy and human rights standards for their constituents. In that respect, call the convergent evolution towards the American-style government policy, a "client" or "vassal" state type of relationship if you'd like, but at least it's one in which (at a minimum) a superficial level of fairness is maintained (i.e., in contrast to sharia law countries).
See this article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/the-hi...
Poland jumped to my mind as well, but at least there is some public pushback on the issue within European states and in the European Union. [1] The United States government itself, and the Middle Eastern countries that are on their "friends list" have been quiet about it, as far as I've seen.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition#Europe...