[lit-ideas] Re: Europe, Thy Name Is Cowardice
- From: Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2005 08:51:43 -0400
This is a ridiculous article barely worth the effort of responding.
In fact, not worth the effort at all.
US
M.A. Camp wrote:
Self-satisfied Europe, thy name is cowardice
The Daily Star ^
<http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=17206>
| July 30, 2005 | Mathias Doepfner
The writer Henryk Broder recently issued a withering indictment:
"Europe, your family name is appeasement." That phrase resonates
because it is so terribly true. Appeasement cost millions of Jews and
non-Jews their lives as Britain and France, allies at the time,
negotiated and hesitated too long before they realized that Hitler
needed to be fought and defeated, because he could not be bound by
toothless agreements.
Later, appeasement legitimized and stabilized communism in the Soviet
Union, then East Germany, then throughout the rest of Eastern Europe -
where inhuman, repressive and murderous governments were glorified for
decades.
Appeasement similarly crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in
Bosnia and Kosovo. Indeed, even though we had absolute proof of
ongoing mass murder there, we Europeans debated and debated - and then
debated still more. We were still debating when finally the Americans
had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet again, to
do our work for us.
Europe still hasn't learned its lesson. Rather than protecting
democracy in the Middle East, European appeasement, camouflaged behind
the fuzzy word "equidistance," often seems to countenance suicide
bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians. Similarly, it
generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore the nearly 500,000
victims of Saddam Hussein's torture and murder machinery, and,
motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace movement, to accuse
U.S. President George W. Bush of being a warmonger.
This hypocrisy continues even as it is discovered that some of the
loudest critics of American action in Iraq made illicit billions -
indeed, tens of billions - of dollars in the corrupt UN "oil-for-food"
program.
Today we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement.
How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic
fundamentalists in Holland, Britain and elsewhere in Europe? By
suggesting - wait for it - that the proper response to such barbarism
is to initiate a "Muslim holiday" in Germany.
I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of
Germany's government - and, if polls are to be believed, the German
people - actually believe that creating an official state Muslim
holiday will somehow spare us from the wrath of fanatical Islamists.
One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain on his return
from Munich, waving that laughable treaty signed by Adolf Hitler, and
declaring the advent of "peace in our time."
What atrocity must occur before the European public and its political
leadership understands what is really happening in the world? There is
a sort of crusade underway - an especially perfidious campaign
consisting of systematic attacks by Islamists, focused on civilians,
that is directed against our free, open Western societies, and that is
intent upon their utter destruction.
We find ourselves faced with a conflict that will most likely last
longer than any of the great military clashes of the last century - a
conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and
"accommodation" because that enemy is actually spurred on by such
gestures. Such responses have proven to be signs of weakness, and they
will always be regarded as such by the Islamists.
Only two recent American presidents have had the courage needed to
shun appeasement: Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. America's critics
may quibble over the details, but in our hearts we Europeans know the
truth, because we saw it first hand. Reagan ended the Cold War,
freeing half of Europe from nearly 50 years of terror and slavery. And
Bush, acting out of moral conviction and supported only by the social
democrat Tony Blair, recognized the danger in today's Islamist war
against democracy.
In the meantime, Europe sits back in the multi-cultural corner with
its usual blithe self-confidence. Instead of defending liberal values
and acting as an attractive center of power on the same playing field
as the true great powers, America and China, it does nothing. On the
contrary, we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to the
supposedly "arrogant Americans," as world champions of "tolerance."
Where does this self-satisfied reaction come from? Does it arise
because we are so moral?
I fear that it stems from the fact that we Europeans are so
materialistic, so devoid of a moral compass. For his policy of
confronting Islamist terrorism head on, Bush risks the fall of the
dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt, and a massive and
persistent burden on the American economy. But he does this because,
unlike most of Europe, he realizes that what is at stake is literally
everything that really matters to free people.
While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because
they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our welfare
states. "Stay out of it! It could get expensive," we cry. So, instead
of acting to defend our civilization, we prefer to discuss reducing
our 35-hour workweek or improving our dental coverage, or extending
our four weeks of annual paid vacation. Or perhaps we listen to
television pastors preaching about the need to "reach out to
terrorists," to understand and forgive.
These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands,
frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber
breaking into a neighbor's house. Appeasement? That is just the start
of it. Europe, thy name is cowardice.
--
Cheers,
M.A. Camp, Esq.
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