US: There has been a lot of critical comment in the United States, especially in the conservative media, about anti-Americanism in Europe. It is matched by a rise in anti-European sentiment in the United States.
The reluctance of France and Germany to follow the lead of President George Bush on Iraq has stirred images of "wimpish Euros". Donald Rumsfeld dismissed France and Germany last week as "old Europe", out of touch with the world.
The French in particular have been reviled in newspaper headlines and on talk shows. France has always been the butt of ridicule in the US. As George Bush once reputedly remarked, "The trouble with the French is that they don't even have a word for entrepreneur."
Rupert Murdoch's New York Post excelled itself after the Defence Secretary's remark with headlines such as "Axis of Weasel" and "Continental Cowards" to describe France and Germany.
Foreign policy essayist Robert Kaplan summed up the conservative Washington view in an oft-quoted essay last summer, when he wrote, "Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus."
Kaplan went on to say: "When it comes to setting national priorities, determining threats, defining challenges and fashioning and implementing foreign and defence policies, the United States and Europe have parted ways."
The English writer Timothy Garton Ash concluded in the current New York Review of Books, after touring the US to investigate anti-Europeanism, that it is the Middle East that is pulling Europe and America apart.
European policy-makers generally believe that a negotiated Arab-Israeli settlement would do more to win the "war against terrorism" than war against Iraq. Americans see an identity of interest between the United States and Israel.
This week Europe came partially back into favour when eight leaders, from Britain, Spain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Portugal, expressed support for the US policy against Iraq in an open letter.
"So much for the widely publicised 'split' between America and Europe on this vital issue," said the Wall Street Journal, adding: "France as usual is playing hard to get and putting its own interests ahead of any conceivable common global interest."
The letter was an intriguing move by European politicians who are not necessarily fans of George Bush. One signatory, Czech President Vaclav Havel, said not long ago that "the extraordinary moral self-righteousness of this \ administration is quite surprising and staggering to Europeans".
The leaders stated that their concern was that the transatlantic relationship might become a casualty of the Iraqi crisis. Their purpose, however, one European diplomat said, was not to support American unilateralism but to promote multilateralism, by saying implicitly: "We're your friends, now listen to us."
This is also said to be the tactical goal of the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who is reportedly using his leverage as America's staunchest ally to persuade Bush to delay issuing an ultimatum until the Security Council is unified again, perhaps after further damning reports from the cool and efficient Hans Blix.
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It isn't just the French who are worried about George Bush's Iraq policy. The latest figure to join the sceptics is Gen Norman Schwarzkopf, aka Stormin' Norman. The general is best known for leading American forces in the first Gulf War. He is an old buddy of Dick Cheney and Colin Powell and goes hunting with George Bush snr, so his criticisms are not made lightly.
"I have gotten somewhat nervous at some of the pronouncements Rumsfeld has made," Schwarzkopf told the Washington Post.
What worried him about Rumsfeld's frequent television appearances was that "he almost sometimes seems to be enjoying it", a sensation Schwarzkopf said should be avoided when engaged in war.
He also described as "scary" Rumsfeld's tendency to overrule experienced generals at the Pentagon on war planning. It is no secret that the Defence Secretary is hugely unpopular at the Pentagon for his abrupt ways and Stormin' Norman's interview might have been a way for some frustrated top brass to get their complaints into print.
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In his State of the Union speech, George Bush promoted the idea of "clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles" so that "the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen and be pollution-free". Who said Iraq was all about oil?
The American car-makers have been promoting hybrid models using petrol and electricity and GM has undertaken to have a million hybrids for sale by 2007 "if demand is high".
However the motor industry is still pushing giant, road-hogging, petrol-drinking sports utility vehicles (SUVs), and the administration still rewards buyers of the biggest SUVs with large tax breaks.
The SUV now comprises a quarter of all American car sales. Larger models like the Chevrolet Suburban get only about 12 miles to the gallon.
Columnist Arianna Huffington has launched an anti-SUV crusade, suggesting that owners are indirectly assisting terrorists who obtain financing in oil-exporting Middle East nations.
Some evangelical Christians have also started a "What Would Jesus Drive?" sticker campaign.
According to Michael Moore, author of Angry White Men, "these gas gluttons use up an extra 280,000 barrels of fuel each day" which explained why Bush wanted to drill in the Artic National Preserve in Alaska - or go to war in Iraq.
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John Rusnak gave an interview to a Baltimore Sun columnist this week as he prepared to start serving his 90-month prison sentence for fraud at Allfirst Bank.
"I don't want to sound sappy," he said, "but I want people to know I'm not evil, I'm not a monster. I did something terrible, but I didn't do it for the money and I didn't pocket any of the money."
If he was looking to profit, he said, he would have shipped $20 million out of the country and then left.
Money obviously lost all meaning for the trader as he gambled on world markets, eventually losing $700 million. He was asked when he realised he was in trouble.
"When it was still a minuscule amount," he replied.
"How much?"
"Maybe $100 million."