Posted on 12/09/2004 7:54:21 AM PST by Rushgrrl
Europe – Thy Name is Cowardice Matthias Döpfner, Chief Executive of German publisher Axel Springer AG, has written a blistering attack in the daily WELT against the cowardice of Europe in the face of the Islamic threat. Hartmut Lau translated the article for us.
Europe – Thy Name is Cowardice
Commentary by Mathias Döpfner
A few days ago Henryk M. Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe – your family name is appeasement." It’s a phrase you can’t get out of your head because it’s so terribly true.
Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives as England and France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to agreements. Appeasement stabilized communism in the Soviet Union and East Germany in that part of Europe where inhuman, suppressive governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities. Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo and we Europeans debated and debated until the Americans came in and did our work for us. Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European appeasement, camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians. Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore 300,000 victims of Saddam’s torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace-movement, to issue bad grades to George Bush. A particularly grotesque form of appeasement is reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere by suggesting that we should really have a Muslim holiday in Germany.
What else has to happen before the European public and its political leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims, focused on civilians and directed against our free, open Western societies. It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than the great military conflicts of the last century—a conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by tolerance and accommodation but only spurred on by such gestures, which will be mistaken for signs of weakness.
Two recent American presidents had the courage needed for anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush. Reagan ended the Cold War and Bush, supported only by the social democrat Blair acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic fight against democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed.
In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the multicultural corner instead of defending liberal society’s values and being an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true great powers, America and China. On the contrary—we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to the intolerant, as world champions in tolerance, which even (Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes. Why? Because we’re so moral? I fear it’s more because we’re so materialistic.
For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of additional national debt and a massive and persistent burden on the American economy—because everything is at stake.
While the alleged capitalistic robber barons in American know their priorities, we timidly defend our social welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive. We’d rather discuss the 35-hour workweek or our dental health plan coverage. Or listen to TV pastors preach about "reaching out to murderers." These days, Europe reminds me of an elderly aunt who hides her last pieces of jewelry with shaking hands when she notices a robber has broken into a neighbor’s house. Europe, thy name is cowardice. (emphasis added)
Thanks Rushgrrl.
Mega OUCH to the Euro's, by a Euro.. Its good to see that not all of Europe is ready to roll over...
Wow. I sure MSM will be all over this. Right?
"Many of you have in your veins Geman and Italian blood. But remember that these ancestors of yours so loved freedom that they gave up home and country to cross the ocean in search of liberty. The ancestors of the people we shall kill lacked the courage to make such a sacrifice and remained slaves." -- George S. Patton
This guy will be dead in a few days.
Ping.
What a refreshing start to my day. Thank you!!!
Good luck.
I live in Europe and can only say he's spot on. You can't do anything good around here without some politically correct socialist appointed/subsidized bureaucrat saying that we gotta be progressive and we gotta get us some of that multicultural thing, whatever it is. I'd favor a full stop to islamic immigration for a period of at least 10 years and a closure of all mosques and islamic schools, immediately. But you try telling that to the entrenched socialist politicians here. The trouble is they all point to the 'dangers' of a new fascism whilst blatantly ignoring the fact that islamicism is fascism itself. The leftist extremists and islamofascists around here for years got away with almost everything whereas even if you are what they would see as a moderate conservatism odds are that accusations of being a nazi will probably have been levelled at you. Around where I live, and my family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, if we were to have a vote, we'd vote islam out of our society and follow up by deeds, but the politicians here in Holland, and in most parts of the rest of Europe seem to have made appeasement a continent wide sport.
Danke sehr für deine Unterstützung, Mathias!!!!
Gerhard Schröder needs to be tossed out on his spineless socialist ass and this guy elected Chancellor!
As usual, Europe is a day late and a Euro short.
The doo doo will have to really be in the fan before they do anything and when they do, it will be a half hearted effort with no teeth in it.
It's time for the free world (while we still are) to wake up to the threat of intolerant Islamofascism.
You need only add that Europe will feign moral superiority and intellectual sophistication as it acts like a sissy while Islamist murderers attack it, which is even more disgusting since they'll fool some people about the motives for their cowardice.
Keep up the fight.
They will wake up some day.
Europeon history is about to repeat itself yet again. It's going to be interesting watching Europe fall apart in the next few years.
A Europe that talks of "root causes" of terrorism genuinely cannot understand non-materialist motivations. It cynically assumes that everyone has his price.
A Europe that will criminalize criticism of Islam is a Europe so terrified of people who are actually willing to kill or die for their beliefs that they are starting to accept sharia.
The European seems to have only two responses to Muslim immigration.
1. Spineless multiculturalism.
2. Skinheads.
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