He will speak on U.S.-European ties Friday in Warsaw, Poland, and hold his first summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday in Ljubljana, Slovenia. At each stop, the president is likely to encounter skepticism if not outright opposition. Many Europeans see the United States today as a nation absorbed with its own interests and ready to go it alone in the world if its allies don't bend to its will. As a consequence, criticism of the United States is rising as the conservative administration in Washington attempts to deal with the largely center-left governments of Europe. The Bush administration wants to build a system capable of shooting down ballistic missiles fired by from unpredictable nations like North Korea, Iraq and Iran.
Some allies are skeptical about the threat.
Others agree the threat exists, but see the response as political. Still others agree with the Kremlin's claim that abandoning the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty between Moscow and Washington will spark a new arms race and weaken security in Europe. If the Russians can be persuaded to go along with the missile defense plans, however, the European allies would probably fall into line, Melby said, predicting the same would be true for Democrats in the U.S. Congress who are also wary about the administration's aims. But missile defenses are not the only point of contention across the Atlantic. Europe was outraged earlier this year when the Bush administration announced it would not adhere to pollution-cutting targets set in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement aimed to stem global warming.