An editorial in The Australian shows once again that our Aussie allies understand us better than the Europeans do: Europe must accommodate Bush vision. (Hat tip: Steven Den Beste.)

Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger once said he would pay attention to Europe when it had a telephone number. By basing himself near EU headquarters in Brussels for this visit, Mr Bush signals he understands Europe now has a voice. In return, EU leaders must get over their unproductive resentment towards Mr Bush. Apart from recent events in the Middle East, what strengthens Mr Bush’s legitimacy is his re-election victory and the deeper changes it portends beneath the surface of US political life. If European leaders ever believed they could simply bide their time until the US produced a leader who thinks as they do, that moment has gone. The Bush vision, which is based on an aggressive assault on terrorism and an activist seeding of democracy, is the direct result of what the US learned on 9/11. It will not go away. And when we see the US mounting a full-scale assault on AIDS and hunger in Africa, or following hot on Australia’s heels with on-the-ground tsunami relief in Aceh, we are looking at another side of the same vision.