One Nation's Bliss

It's not what Americans don't know but what they won't know that makes European unity on an institutional level all the more urgent

Hillary Clinton uttered a marvelous little understatement in her interview with Der Spiegel last week, a follow-up to her appearance on the newsweekly's cover: "Many Americans don't know what all Germany does."

A safe enough assertion, certainly. Considering that, according a recent poll, a third of all Americans believe those elusive weapons of mass destruction have actually been found in Iraq, or that nearly a quarter of Americans believe Saddam used them in Gulf War II, or that about half think Iraqis were among the hijackers that flew the planes into the WTC and the Pentagon, yes, one can reasonably assume that many - how about most? - Americans are unaware that, for example, one out of five peacekeepers in Kabul is German. Probably very few, too, know that four were killed illed