Even the vocabulary of the alliance needs updating, as leading European commentators have been noting recently.

That led some Americans to fault the Europeans for not showing solidarity with Washington, just as some European commentators accused the America of moral snobbery.

On the contrary; Americans, Japanese and European commentators were talking about an extraordinary economic renaissance in the UK.

European commentators tend to assume their listeners know the stories and the details.

This rattling of the tin cup may not constitute, as several European commentators suggested this week, a humiliation of President Clinton.

Instead, all the European commentators, politicians and demonstrators would start fighting with one another over what to say to the president.

That is why his blitzkrieg invasion of Kuwait, proving his insatiable ambition, has led so many European commentators to remember Hitler.

Many European commentators have stated that it seems artificial or even offensive.

Many European commentators were deeply pessimistic.

The fact that many recent executions have taken place in Texas also colors - negatively - European commentators' views of Gov. George W. Bush.