Mark Steyn: The Ugly European

The Wall Street Journal ^ | June 13, 2001 | Mark Steyn

[quidnunc]

Dear Mr Steyn,

Thanks for the helpful inscribes in the flyleaf of my copy of Head to Toe.  I wasn't one of those guys that got really pissed when France and Germany obstructed our going into Iraq, and I wasn't surprised by the Spanish electorate buying a moving van, as it were, for Senor Aznar. Doesn't mean I don't get annoyed, now and again, especially (politics and trade being what they are) we'll be doing business on other fronts with these nasty spotted prancers (that's from a Monty Python skit). However, it's very important the great American public know the national character of GerFraSpa; no longer the spike-helmeted walrus-mustached Prussian barking twelve-syllable words; the bereted wax-mustached lothario leaning baguette against the doorway of his mistress's flat, or the … well, how do you describe spaniards? Orwell said they're cruel to animals, but I can't for the life of me come up with a stage Spaniard. Manuel in Fawlty Towers? Oh well — my point being, they've all coalesced into one person, as it were, a bitchy NIONite whose pyramid of values has "survival" at its apex, and beneath that, "freedom to abuse the United States" and whose other blocks include, "lifetime employment in moribund state-supported industry", "read bad literature" , "collect Johnny Holliday memorabilia" and so on.

So, I think it would be very helpful if you republished a column or two abusing Europeans in general and FraGerSpa in, uh, well, general. I searched Face of Tiger and Head to Toe last night, and while it's a theme in your great symphony, as it were, I didn't find any one or two essays devoted to just that. So roll them out (please).

Thanks much,

James Holloway
Your greatest admirer in ("88% Democratic!")
Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York

-snip-

[Gothmog]

Thanks for posting the full article. Here's an interesting section given Kerry's recent assertions that he just 'knows' he'd be able to put together a better international coalition:

"Oh, really? In 1998, when Mr. Clinton was threatening Iraq with Gulf War II, the only task force he could assemble was comprised of a zillion American B-52s, 14 British Harriers, HMCS Toronto, and some backup from Down Under. The Clinton coalition, 1998: the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand. What do these countries have in common? Well, let's see . . . Language: English. Head of state: Her Majesty the Queen. When Mr. Clinton, the great multiculturalist and diversity-celebrator, called in his chits from abroad, you couldn't help noticing a certain uniculturalism and homogeneity. And in five years' time, with Britain tied in to a common EU defense policy, you can forget about those 14 Harriers."

[NZerFromHK]

Yep, and I also know some others (I won't say exactly their screen names): a couple of German FR posters, a Spanish who works in the finance sector, a Belgian, a Scot, and even a Blairite Londoner! Strangely enough, I never saw them respond when someone posts articles from Mark Steyn or VDH.

[maica]

In other words, Mr. Bush is the U.S. president Europe's been demanding for decades. You no longer, as half the present European cabinets did in their youth, have to jump up and down outside the U.S. embassy shouting "Yankee, go home!" because this Yankee's got no desire to leave the house in the first place. So the only question now is why, after years of deploring American imperialism, Europe's anti-Yank elites have seamlessly moved on to being just as snide and patronizing about American isolationism. Le Monde, the bible of France's lefty establishment, ran a cartoon the other day showing on one side the world in chaos and on the other Uncle Sam at his desk, fast asleep with his phone unplugged. Yankee, come back!

The Rest of the World's verdict on the new administration was deftly summarized by the Reuters diplomatic editor, Paul Taylor, in his assessment of the first 100 days:

"In just 14 weeks, he has angered China, cold-shouldered Russia, humiliated South Korea, worried Japan, dismayed the Arab world, irritated the European Union, outraged environmentalists and snubbed campaigners for global justice."

Wow! Now that's what Broadway producers call a money review! I cut it out and stuck it on the fridge, and it was only on rereading it that it occurred to me Mr. Taylor might have intended his remarks disapprovingly.

%%%%%%


Since Americans (including the elite media, apparently) are a little weak on remembrance of history, it is important that we who know the true story of the past 50 years remind others that "Yankee/Yanqui Go Home" scrawled on a wall anywhere in the world, was a mainstay of the news for decades.

[PhilipFreneau]

"In just 14 weeks, he has angered China, cold-shouldered Russia, humiliated South Korea, worried Japan, dismayed the Arab world, irritated the European Union, outraged environmentalists and snubbed campaigners for global justice."

Wow! Now that's what Broadway producers call a money review! I cut it out and stuck it on the fridge, and it was only on rereading it that it occurred to me Mr. Taylor might have intended his remarks disapprovingly.

LOL. That last line is funny.

[headsonpikes]

Good pick.

[Atlantic Friend]

"Umm..I know we have a few resident Eurocrat wannabes here on FR working tirelessly promoting the virtues of the Great Europe and the ugliness of ugly Amerikkkans. I wonder where they are now? Are they playing chicken? ;-)"

Not that I remember "tirelessly promoting the ugliness of ugly Amerikkans", but I'm all for promoting the virtues of the Great Europe. As a matter of fact, I'm all for promoting virtue regardless of its nationality, and to criticize sin accordingly.

[NZerFromHK]

Nah, you aren't one of them :-). I personally don't like people that say "My country is good because you are bad...".

[knighthawk]

Ping

[GretchenM]

marker bump
the WHOLE thing

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1187185/posts?page=3#3

[workerbee]

The latest vehicle for Europe's superpower ambitions is the new "Rapid Reaction Force." Washington frets that this is some kind of European army in embryo. If only. There's already a European army on the Continent: It's called the U.S. Army, and, because it's happy to take the gig, the Europeans are absolved from the considerable expense of defending themselves. In making up the slack for their vestigial armed forces, America is subsidizing the swollen welfare states of Western Europe.

Classic take-no-prisoners Steyn. You just gotta love this guy.

[308scout]

ping

[maica]

The Rest of the World's verdict on the new administration was deftly summarized by the Reuters diplomatic editor, Paul Taylor, in his assessment of the first 100 days:

"In just 14 weeks, he has angered China, cold-shouldered Russia, humiliated South Korea, worried Japan, dismayed the Arab world, irritated the European Union, outraged environmentalists and snubbed campaigners for global justice."

Wow! Now that's what Broadway producers call a money review! I cut it out and stuck it on the fridge, and it was only on rereading it that it occurred to me Mr. Taylor might have intended his remarks disapprovingly.

^^^^^^

Steyn is a treasure.
Anyone old enough to have read LIFE magazines, etc knows that a photo of "Yankee/yanqui go home" was on a wall somewhere in every issue.

All this demspin of "the world loved us before GWB" is just part of the big lie. Nice of Steyn to reiterate it.

[maica]

Now this is weird ---

I read the article, copied and pasted part of it and my comment, and posted it.

Then I proceeded to read the rest of the thread.

When I got to post #23 I saw that I had copied and pasted one more paragraph than I thought I had - another sign of incipient dementia.

Another few posts and I realized that the post was written on 8 August. My comment was almost identical to the one I wrote today!

What to make of that? I HATED seeing those photos week after week. And now I hate that our legacy media are selling the idea that we were loved until GWB took the helm.


%%%%%


Since Americans (including the elite media, apparently) are a little weak on remembrance of history, it is important that we who know the true story of the past 50 years remind others that "Yankee/Yanqui Go Home" scrawled on a wall anywhere in the world, was a mainstay of the news for decades.
23 posted on 08/08/2004 8:37:17 AM EDT by maica (The flags the dems waved at the convention were left on Fleet Center floor.)

[Travis McGee]

GWB just gives the America-haters a handy focal point to blast their hate toward.