Alguns exemplos da "guerra de palavras" da imprensa norte-americana e de colunistas seus, numa revisão de "The Guardian": "The "petulant prima donna of realpolitik" is leading the "axis of weasels", in "a chorus of cowards". It is an unholy alliance of "wimps" and ingrates which includes one country that is little more than a "mini-me minion", another that is in league with Cuba and Libya, with a bunch of "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" at the helm. Welcome to Europe, as viewed through the eyes of American commentators and newspapers as Euro-bashing, and particularly anti-French sentiment, reaches new heights this week. In a barrage of insults and invective which ranged from the basest tabloid rants to the loftiest columnists on the most respected US newspapers, European-led resistance to America's war plans in Iraq was portrayed not as a diplomatic position to be negotiated but as a genetic weakness in the European mindset which makes them reluctant to fight wars and incapable of winning them. American wrath has been reserved for those nations which oppose their leadership, particularly following the decision to oppose shifting Nato resources to Turkey. The front page of Rupert Murdoch's New York Post yesterday shows the graves of Normandy with the headline: "They died for France but France has forgotten." A cartoon in the same paper shows an ostrich with its head in the sand below the words: "The national bird of France."