I wasn't aware of this, but it seems the GPS-technology which is used all around the world for positioning with help from satellites is controlled by the US military. This of course gives the US government an opportunity to potentially control events around the world. Just think: they want Jaques Chirac dead, so they manipulate the GPS-thingie in his limo to drive him off a cliff! What to do to prevent such a terrible event, we Europeans ask?
Well, build our own, competing system, of course!
Here you can read about the Galileo-system which the EU and other countries has just launched. It's going to compete for the business of global positioning and offers a service of greater precision than GPS, which will hopefully generate an estimated 140 000 jobs or so!
Of course one shouldn't read too much animosity into something like this that is probably based to a large extent on the not-so-lofty vision of making money, but you can't help wondering if the growing unease around the world about US intentions doesn't also factor in somewhere. Before Bush the concept of a real and growing rivalry between the EU and USA seemed far-fetched and, well... unnecessary. If the US controls the Internet or GPS, one would more likely have argued back then, so what? The Yanks are good, benevolent guys, right? They wouldn't unduly use a technological edge to their advantage, would they?
Now things aren't so clear-cut. Even though there's a huge and enduring reservoir of goodwill towards the US that you guys probably tend to underestimate rather than the other way around, the recklessness of Bush et al, as well as the rank hostility aimed at France in particular from the likes of Bill O'Reilly and friends is taking its toll, I think. And once that rift is seen to exist at all, it might start growing faster than anyone would like. I mean, once Jeb Bush is inaugurated...