US and Europe at odds over nature of killing

America is united in jubilation at the killing of bin Laden while an unsettled Europe ponders the ethics of the operation and future implications, writes Alastair MacDonald

WHEN Osama bin Laden’s men flew airliners into New York’s World Trade Center 10 years ago, they drew an outpouring of solidarity from Europe, captured by a French newspaper under the headline, “We are all Americans now.”

It didn’t last. A decade of wars has followed that strained old alliances — few in Paris will forget the US jibes about “cheese-eating surrender monkeys”.