Posted on 11/19/2004 11:14:05 AM PST by quidnunc
In light of how the media and political elites in Europe continue to denounce the war in Iraq and openly criticize the reelection of President George W. Bush, it is surprising that their reaction to the replacement of Secretary of State Colin Powell with Condoleezza Rice has been so favorable. After all, Powell was widely regarded in Europe as the single moderate voice in an administration of hawks.
Despite the positive remarks about Condoleezza Rice from German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and his French counterpart Michel Barnier, it is important not to underestimate the depth of anti-Americanism in Europe and its impact on U.S. foreign policy around the world.
-snip-
It is important to understand that modern American conservatism has no equivalent in Europe and has never been accepted as legitimate in European intellectual circles, which are monolithically both secular and liberal. There is no National Review or Weekly Standard, no talk radio personalities or Fox News to challenge the liberal orthodoxy. Serious ideological diversity among think-tanks and political foundations in any European country is negligible.
Just how much influence do these opinion shapers have? The Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Survey from March this year noted that "solid majorities in France and Germany believe the U.S. is conducting the war on terrorism in order to control Mideast oil and dominate the world." In Turkey "as many as 31 percent say that suicide attacks against Americans and other Westerners in Iraq are justifiable." Turkey is important, because it stayed out of the coalition in Iraq and we know whose club it wants to join.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at techcentralstation.com ...
Maybe FreeRepublic could take up a fundraiser to put some Europeans in Pet Scans, to see if the same areas of the brain light up for Envy as they do for American hatred.
Actually, except for the Brits, no European army can operate with our forces because they simply can't match our operational tempo.
They would be a liability, not an asset, in any military operation we mounted.
Makes sense. No doubt true. However, how do we know this? Croatia?
Thank you for the first *real* list...
* We are able to, and willing to, defend ourselves.
I don`t think I have to explain that Germans know
how to fight....
However, at the moment we are surrounded by friends.
* We have a solid economy
*cough*
The highest debt ever, and you call this
*solid*??
Don`t get me wrong, but the moment the OPEC decides
to sell their oil in Euros, the US is bancrupt.
* We have played a major role in liberating people and their land from aggressor nations and have asked for, and received little or nothing in return.
Gulf War I has been completly refinanced by
non-participating nations, such as mine and
Japan + several Emirates.
I have additional facts, but I`d like to keep
my account.
* We lead the world in medical, technical and mechanical development.
You did.
Sorry.
Short list, but you get the point...
My regards,
Hun
...These circumstances and events ARE the reasons why
Euros don`t envy the US... beside other, additional
reasons...
Oh. Despite the fact that you wouldn't have faired nearly as well as we have given the same circumstances you aren't envious? My bad, that would require critical, honest introspection, something Euro elitists apparently don't do...
Gulf War I and Afghanistan, as well as the military doctrine of the Euro armies.
During Gulf War I we had to put the French Foreign Legion a out of harms way because they just couldn't cut the mustard.
The Euros just don't have the logistics capability, communications or equipment to fight the kind of fast-moving, integrated war which we wage.
"We GAVE YOU BACK your right to not support us!"
And there's the rub as they say. As a german-born post-war immigrant to Australia it has been my experience that the older generation of germans still cannot forgive or forget that they were conquered. Now, that does not mean any or all are Hitler fans, however, as the US had the primary strength in the conflict, the US, more than the other members of the allied forces are still perceived as the enemy which bombed cities etc. Add to this that the US military were well equipped, well dressed and well fed when the german population was on starvation rations and the german army was freezing to death in Russia and you get the picture. Germans are the ones who have never 'gotten over it' - who still see themselves as victims.
Nevertheless that US money and effort rebuilt the country. Sometimes charity itself makes mortal enemies. They lost the war, they are being asked to be thankful. These are the influences still alive in germany - nothing has changed since the time I, as a child, watched as adults wrote on fences 'Yankee Go Home'
And then they would line up for American food and aid. There's no making sense of it. They lost the war and will never forgive the US for that.
What you really have there, think about it, is Islamic rhetoric coming out of caucasian mouths. This is only going to intensify as time goes on. It won't be long before all Europeans will stop using toilet paper and will only eat with their right hand.
"Oh. Despite the fact that you wouldn't have faired nearly as well as we have given the same circumstances you aren't envious?"
I am sorry that you`ve decided to answer on a lower level
of discussion.
I cannot prove that Euros would have been better, because
we weren`t so stupid to start such a war.
This time, and for the first time.
As Rummy is calling us "Old Europe", I`d answer
that beeing old does mean not to make the same mistake
all over again.
" My bad, that would require critical, honest introspection, something Euro elitists apparently don't do... "
Ask anybody who really knows post-war Germans.
Critical, honest introspection of our past is our
second nature.
You wanted german peaceniks, now
live with it :-)
Hun
It sounds like a good opportunity for a European version of Limbaugh.
is'nt european intellectual an oxymoron?
to heck with them all especially the frog basta*ds.
" It won't be long before all Europeans will stop using toilet paper and will only eat with their right hand."
Sure.
And in 2050, the rest of the US will speak Spanish,
according to demographic results.
Hasta la vista,
Hun
"And in 2050, the rest of the US will speak Spanish,
according to demographic results"
I can live with that - I have still to hear of a single Mexican blowing up a building, bus or pizza parlor. And, they don't demand that we listen to that damnable screaming over loudspeakers 6 times a day.
"nt european intellectual an oxymoron?"
Your posting is quite the contrary, my
fellow hillbilly :-)
Such a a person would never be given a forum, and if he was nobody much would listen.
With Germans, as with most of Old Europe, the political spectrum ranges from Dennis Kucinich to Jimmy Carter, with a gap until you get to David Duke.
The only choices are the loony left, socialists or vest-pocket fascists.
"I can live with that - I have still to hear of a single Mexican blowing up a building, bus or pizza parlor. And, they don't demand that we listen to that damnable screaming over loudspeakers 6 times a day."
Wait until you wife`s serving Tortilla 7 days a week,
the Pope wants you to become catholic and your local
priest wants you use your rosary every time your say
SHIT or motherf***er...
Come down....
Hun
ah lets see
come on over and collect if you can.
"ah lets see
come on over and collect if you can."
Sorry, I`m not a native speaker (?).
Dark is the sense of your words,
please enlighten me.
Oder frage mich auf Deutsch :o)
Hun
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