Oh, wait. Maybe the writer didn't mean this in a literal sense. Never mind.
Posted on 05/18/2004 1:17:25 PM PDT by .cnI redruM
This ought to be a moment of great triumph for Europe and America together. Instead there is mutual disenchantment. On May 1 the European Union accepted 10 countries—most of them remnants of the Soviet empire—into membership. The EU is now a massive free-trade area and loose political union with 25 countries, 455 million people and an $11.6 trillion economy. After World War II, farsighted Europeans and Americans promoted European unification to end a history of ruinous continental wars. The vision has succeeded spectacularly, and yet there's no common celebration.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Could it be because Europe is on the fast track towards becoming an Islamic Republic????
Bush is not to blame ... save for rolling out the red carpet for PootiePoot politically same as Clinton rolled it out concretely, mining our own side natch, as the Russians stole Pristina from us.
Anyone whose read their Lenin knows damn good and well that the point of the Euro Soviet (or EU) is to render the nation-state redundant (confine it to Big Decisions like choosing the quaint images on the flip side of each nation's Euro issue) while forming into one giant economic muscle and the long-awaited collectived security system a powerhouse of "Western" energy sufficient to give the US a run for its money.
What's interesting is that China's got the number of our Little (former) Red Hen and is just sitting back and biding their time.
It'll be interesting, if not painful, for Americans to watch from here on out.
Having just helped with a slew of academic Spanish translations (I clean up the translations) on Agenda 21 and the EU stock market, their footnotes and cites suggeset that the writing's on the wall -- _been_ on the wall -- for anyone to see.
Actually, for PMSNBC I thought it was a reasonably good piece. It wasn't the hit piece I expected and came to a reasonable conclusion.
Oh, wait. Maybe the writer didn't mean this in a literal sense. Never mind.
"Could it be because Europe is on the fast track towards becoming an Islamic Republic????"
That was my first thought.
Our fore fathers left Europe and came over here for a reason. We do not want to be like the Europeans.
That said, the charge of ingratitude flows both ways. If Americans seem skeptical of the new Europe it is, in large measure, because the popular view is that we sacrificied a very great deal more, over 50 years of opposition to the real monster that was the Soviet Union, than the principal beneficiaries, who seem, to the U.S., to be using their newfound and hard-won independence to act, not independently of their benefactor, but in an ideology-driven, reflexive, blind and unconstructive opposition for opposition's sake. I don't know what fairyland we expected out of the whole thing, but that certainly wasn't it.
As long as I'm throwing accusations, let me continue with this: one large factor in the current dislocation is a rather unrealistic resentment on the part of the Europeans that the world they're entering as an entity isn't the one they've grandly declared exists: one in which negotiation trumps militarism and force as an extension of statecraft is crude, ignorant, and passe. It isn't really our fault that this isn't the case, nor is it entirely our fault that the EU finds itself ill-equipped to deal with the brutish realities of life in the wild. Wishing it otherwise won't make it so, and vilifying the United States as the successful practitioner of such force serves only to mask the fact that it's a damn good thing for them that we are.
lol!
>>>>their footnotes and cites suggeset that the writing's on the wall -- _been_ on the wall -- for anyone to see.
Sounds like some good FR posts. Are there links????
I dunno what their deal is... *I* don't feel disenfranchised.....
Sounds like a personal problem to me!
:::::snicker::::
I am sure that you're right and it is a very scary situation.
The truth is that Europe is too weak to lead and too proud to follow.
My pet theory is that Europe, or at least France, has been contemptuous of America since the time of the American and French revolutions. Basically, France has a wicked case of revolution envy. Theirs was an exercise in ugliness and absurdity, while ours was a triumph of ideological sanity. Furthermore, it was the unbalanced rationalism and state-centered "fraternity" of the French that would later heap so much suffering upon humanity in the form of Communism. Bottom line -- history has demonstrated that France's ideas suck and America's ideas work. And this galls the Gauls to the core. Their failures and their dependence on the US over the last century has left them with a sense of shame and envy that they assuage by casting us as the great moral evil in the world. It's all very unhealthy.
That is for sure!
If I felt that this country had something in common with Germany and/or France I would be more than a little concerned. Heaven forbid we ever reach that point.
In other words, the Euros are acting just like bratty and spoiled teenagers.
.cnI redruM wrote:
Even Bronze Age women enjoy suffrage in the US....(just a joke)
The EU a rival to the USA? That is laughable. Wait until the sloganeering ends and reality closes in on them. They just abandoned the notion of an EU wide patent process this week, imagine the feathers that would fly when they try to become a cohesive military power. The Greeks will not die for the Norwegians nor the French ransom the cities of Poland with Paris under a nuclear umbrella. This "Europe" that they talk of really does not exist in anything but their propaganda, a truth that shall be all to evident when hard times overtake them collectively and individually. The coming crisis is just a few years away.
With America out of the picture Germany would have to become a nuclear power and this is something that the Russians will never allow. It will be more like South America a few years on instead of the current dream of Europe that they are now intoxicated with.
This of course assumes that we do not let the Democrats turn us in the another European socialist state. I am curious about this comment:
What's interesting is that China's got the number of our Little (former) Red Hen and is just sitting back and biding their time.
It'll be interesting, if not painful, for Americans to watch from here on out.
Could you pleas elaborate on what you mean here as I do not quite understand what you mean to say. Are you implying that there will be an alliance between China and the EU? I so I would not bet on it. France is just looking for a new sugar daddy now that Germanies eyes are roving. The rest of Europe will not allow it. The new member states know who keeps them sae and it is not France.
As for Agenda 21 and the like, all I can say is that I have been personally involved with two of the EU Science and Technology programmes and one of the old EC's similar science initiatives in the 80's and I can tell you they are all a joke. Nothing really serious comes from them. I do not see any real threat from that angle except for a brief period of dominance in particle physics for about 10 years starting in 07, and that will have little practical application. The kind of reforms needed here are so deeply cultural, so close to the bone and so disruptive of not just the political order but the social order in the EU member states that I doubt it shall ever happen. I know planeloads of scientist that have moved back to the EU to "build the house of Europe" and within two or three years they are right back in the US of A and glad of it.
What we must do is cut taxes and regulations and obstacles to personal freedoms. Then all the gifted Europeans with fire in their bellies will just move over here.
The EU is going to be a shocking and bitter disappointment to the Europeans and they are beginning even now to see it. That is one of the key reasons for their bitter anti-americanism. As time goes on we shall see Europe vanish into history as a credible civilization. Our real struggle for dominance lies elsewhere.
At least that is my take on it and I deal quite abit with the EU and Russia.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.