Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor under President Carter: A New Age of Solidarity? Don’t Count on It: “Is it, therefore, the dawn of a new age, born in the ruins of the World Trade Center and the exploding bombs in Afghanistan? A closer look justifies a great deal of skepticism. The solidarity is genuine, but it is a solidarity more of words than of deeds. Moreover, the underlying realities of power have not been changed… There is no Europe as such that is joining America in its long-term campaign; individual European states are doing what they can… While Putin was sympathetic, it is still an open question whether Russia has made a historic choice in favor of the West or is seeking to exploit America’s preoccupation to extract specific concessions… In the Middle East there is nothing even remotely resembling the anti-Iraq coalition of 1991.. In brief, the “coalition” against terrorism does not even share a common definition of the threat…” Washington Post