Daniel Johnson, writing in The New York Sun, offers an explanation:
This week’s European visit by Mr. Bush, which culminates in Sunday’s symbolic farewell to Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle, actually demonstrates that the transatlantic divisions over Iraq have largely been healed. Both Ms. Merkel and President Sarkozy of France are far more sympathetic allies than their predecessors, while Italy recently re-elected Silvio Berlusconi, another pro-American.
In eastern Europe fear of resurgent Russian nationalism has reminded even those who opposed the war of which friends they can rely on — and countries heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas, such as Germany, are not among them.
As for the perennial transatlantic bones of contention — climate change, human rights, military spending, the Middle East — they are, for the moment at least, much less prominent in Europe than, say, a year ago. The French have even mooted the idea of fully rejoining North Atlantic Treaty Organization, while both Al Qaeda and the Taliban have been losing ground. In the war on terror, as in everything else, nothing succeeds like success.
Paradoxically, therefore, Mr. Bush will bequeath the next president a legacy, not of transatlantic tension, but of comparative harmony. What is likely to vitiate the alliance for years to come is not the freedom or democracy agendas that we associate with the Bush administration, but their virtual abandonment. Cutting loose countries on the bloody crossroads between liberty and tyranny is a certain way to plunge the West into conflict, both internal and external.
All fads fade–and Bush-hating is no exception.
