European foreign policy has become anti-Bush

From TNR, excerpts below:

Europe's new progressive foreign policy leaders.
Contintental Drift

by Suzanne Nossel

"One of the most improbable and unintended legacies of the Bush administration is an emerging generation of European foreign policy leaders that is more progressive than any in decades. They were chosen by new heads of state eager to move beyond the polarizing politics of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. These top diplomats now have the potential to reshape European foreign policy in ways that will reverberate back to Washington. .."

"First came French President Nicolas Sarkozy's choice of renowned humanitarian Bernard Kouchner as his foreign minister several weeks ago. Then, last Thursday, newly seated British Prime Minister Gordon Brown tapped rising star David Miliband as foreign minister and former U.N. official Mark Malloch Brown ... (signaling) a desire to break from the past, move beyond the shadow of the Bush years, and reassert European influence on the global stage. .."

"While supportive of Bush's war, Kouchner nonetheless inveighed against Bush's methods. He rejected the president as "the least credible spokesman for human rights around." .. His first moves in office--hands-on diplomacy in Sudan over Darfur and calling for a court to try the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri--mark a new brand of French foreign policy: one willing to seize the initiative, accept political risks, and lead. By personifying a hawkish liberal internationalism, Kouchner is living proof that a rejection of Bush-style unilateralism need not be a retreat into isolationism, passivity, or cowardice. .."

"... Though pundits are speculating about how his (Miliband) Jewish background may be seen in the Arab world, Miliband split from Tony Blair last summer to criticize Israel's attacks on Lebanon.."

"... In relatively short order, of course, the most important interlocutors for these new officials in Washington will be not Bush administration officials but their successors. Depending on the political persuasions of the next administration, these European foreign policy counterparts may prove a valuable or a vexing part of the Bush legacy..."