The European strategy is in tatters and not only on the transatlantic front.

There remain many other countries with deplorable animal welfare standards.

Declining stock markets and low interest rates, have left private pensions around the world more vulnerable than was expected.

Despite that there is a lot of work to be done there is no order, and no planning and the towns are in a lamentable condition.

Much as we believe that development is our responsibility, our means of self reliance are woefully insufficient.

Today, a democratic transition that the West sought to portray as a model that other Arab nations could emulate lies in tatters.

Edward II had allowed the Tower of London to fall into a state of disrepair, and by the reign of Edward III the castle was an uncomfortable place.

Doctors are on strike, taxes are on the rise, the parties in government are mauling each other, and Chancellor Angela Merkel herself proclaimed in a prominent speech that the country is in disastrous shape.

Now its economic project lies in tatters while the leadership needed to rekindle political integration is nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile, America s strategic partnership with Pakistan, where Obama won a significant symbolic victory by eliminating Osama bin Laden, is in tatters.

All who are now part of the national elite have ancestors who came, often bedraggled and harassed, from somewhere else.

On 22 April, at his afternoon situation conference, Hitler fell into a tearful rage when he understood that his plans of the day before were not going to be realised.

Since India gained independence 58 years ago, billions of rupees have been doled out in numerous educational policies, but general primary education remains abysmal.

The stalemate in this long standing conflict has left tens of thousands of Saharan refugees living in deplorable conditions, relying for their survival on the generosity of the international community.

I think this true marriage of art and information is woefully underused in adult literature, and I'm mystified as to why visual wealth is not more commonly used to enhance intellectual wealth.

Especially important is the proposal to channel 30 of the profits of state owned enterprises (SOEs) currently running at close to 400 billion into the country s woefully under funded social safety net.

Developed countries employ 12 times the per capita number of scientists and engineers in research and development than developing countries, where there is often a woefully weak institutional capacity.

It was unheard of at that time for women to begin dancing professionally before the age of eighteen, but her father had lost his teaching position at the school in 1896, leaving her family in dire straits financially.

Without the American climate change package, the promises made by the US administration only seven months ago at the Copenhagen summit have become worthless. The European strategy is in tatters and not only on the transatlantic front.

Turkey has also lost several regional allies, particularly some of the Gulf monarchies, which are angry at the Erdoğan government s unconditional support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Turkey s much vaunted soft power diplomacy and neighborhood policy now lie in tatters.

Before the crisis, Europe looked like the most likely candidate to make a successful transition to the first equilibrium greater political unification. Now its economic project lies in tatters while the leadership needed to rekindle political integration is nowhere to be seen.

But this aspiration will remain elusive without acknowledging the sad fact that most Americans remain woefully ignorant about the basic facts of Islam, and about the broad geographic and cultural diversity of Muslim cultures.