Let's crash a couple of airliners into La Defense -- an apt name for a business district methinks -- and see what happens.
> The EU is structurally different from the US, on a whole range of
> interesting levels: Leftwing parties, strong unions, a far less mainstream
> press, etc.
Just because the various European imperialisms have been eclipsed by the US, it doesn't mean that it's over. The economic and military potential of the EU is a new imperial potential.
> Western Europe has a toxic history of colonialism, but it also has fine
> traditions of resistance thereto. Human rights -- the right to organize
unions,
> to express political opinions, to elect representatives, to live without
fear of
> harassment and hate, to live without fear of the horrific structural
violence of
> market forces -- are workers' rights.
All of these attributes having flowed from the period when the European empires begain to decline.
> > I lived in London in 1990-92 and I've heard Europeans talking about
> > "Muslims", in exactly the same way that they would about "Pakistanis",
>
> And have things changed since then, in terms of greater sympathy and
> understanding of immigration and immigrant cultures?
Are you kidding? What does it tell you when voters elect creeps from the Front National, British National Party or Forza Italia? A smaller but resonant example is the hejab --- Muslim girls in France are not allowed to wear it to school, and a Muslim teacher in Germany is taking court action -- vigorously defended by the state -- to establish her right to wear it in class.