And not just marginally, no, the results from a survey conducted by RTL News about Dutch attitudes toward the US and president Bush on the eve of his visit to The Netherlands are jaw-dropping. In summary the Dutch response to the following 10 positions:

1. We owe our freedom and democracy to the US: 49% Disagrees

2. The US is our best friend and partner in the world: 58% Disagrees

3. The Dutch Government is a lapdog of the US: 68% Agrees

4. The Netherlands should never have sent troops to Iraq: 51% Agrees

5. President Bush is a danger to world peace: 56% Agrees

6. The US attitudes towards other countries increasingly scares me: 64% Agrees

7. The European Union should form a counterweight to the US: 71% Agrees

8. It is good the US leads the War on Terror: 62% Agrees

9. The US exaggerates the terror threats for its own advantage: 71% Agrees

10. The Bush Administration puts too much pressure on other countries to become and stay partners of the US: 79% Agrees.

Baffling, especially numbers 1,2 and 6. At the same time, this poll was probaly designed to get these results.

Believe me, of all the “Old Europe” nations, this is one of the most pro-American countries, so you can imagine the results if you run a similar poll in say France or Italy. It also, once and for all, destroys the hopeful notion that after the Van Gogh killing the Dutch would have a better understanding of what the War on Terror really stands for and that maybe, just maybe, George Bush could be re-evaluated as someone who probably is getting it right. Not so, and it is exactly this attitude that will prevent the Dutch from ever pro-actively dealing with the dark forces that are lined up against the small nation to subvert its freedom. And that's not just Muslim terror, an increasingly powerful Franco-German dominated European Union will eventually make the Dutch wish for a return to the days that the US was their best friend and partner.

With poll results like the ones above I don’t think there will ever be any American appetite to once more bail the Dutch out of a troubled spot. If it ever existed, it evaporated on the release of these numbers. The trans-atlantic relationship is dying faster that even I had projected.

But it gets worse. What is getting the attention of the Dutch is the cost of security during the Bush visit which apparently runs into a few million euros. It’s bewildering that a nation that not only owes its freedom to the US, was rebuilt with US help and was defended against communism with the US picking up the tab would be willing to display such ignorance and idiocy. And that in the week that European freedom should be celebrated and the American blood that was spilled for it remembered. But then, half the population isn't even aware that they owe their freedom to the US.

I've never been worried about George Bush and his ability to perform but for today and tomorrow, I really wish him good luck.

UPDATE: Dutch blogger Sered Pov looked at the numbers too. Check him out for further reporting on the Dutch visit, he's actually on the ground in Holland.

READER MAIL:

I am not surprised by these results. It is merely the
harvest of years of a biased presentation of the news
together with a limited or lack of news source
alternatives.