One of my rare current-events blogs.

I don't know why but I thought this was quite an interesting, newsworthy story, buried under an inauspicous headline.
U.S. TRADE CHIEF LABORS TO MEND RIFT WITH EUROPE OVER WAR (LA Times 5/3/03)

This does not seem like breaking news. It's been the gyst of one story after another. The interesting thing was the mention of a mini-summit held by "The coalition of the unwilling". France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg sent representatives to a summit in Brussels; one of their points of discussion was the proposed creation of new military facilities independent of NATO. U.S. Trade Rep Robert Zoellick characterized "the four nation summit as a somewhat odd security meeting, held by that paragon of power, Brussels."
O.K., now that's not being polite.

It really is the end of the world as we knew it. The U.S. is likely going to close most of, or all of its military facilities in germany, such as the massive bomber base at Ramstein. It seems to me that the end of NATO is a far more impacting story, than the ongoing struggle to maintain trade relations between the U.S. and Europe (read: France). Americans may boycott French wine, but they'll never stop buying AUDIs and Beemers.