Posted on 02/01/2005 10:01:52 AM PST by dascallie
Matthias Dapfner, Chief Executive of the huge German publisher Axel Springer AG, has written a blistering attack in DIE WELT, Germany's largest daily newspaper, against the timid reaction of Europe in the face of the Islamic threat.
EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE (Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG)
A few days ago Henry 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 toothless agreements.
Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe where for decades, inhuman, suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as the ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities.
Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and even though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated and debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the Americans had to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet again, and do 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 nearly 500,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the self-righteousness of the peace-movement, has the gall to issue bad grades to George Bush... Even as it is uncovered that the loudest critics of the American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of billions, in the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program.
And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement... How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic fundamentalists in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really should have a "Muslim Holiday" in Germany.
I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our (German) Government, and if the 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 the fanatical Islamists.
One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving the laughable treaty signed by Adolf Hitler, and declaring European "Peace in our time".
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, directed against our free, open Western societies, and intent upon Western Civilization's utter destruction.
It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great military conflicts of the last century - a conflict conducted by an enemy that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and "accommodation" but is actually spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will always be taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness.
Only two recent American Presidents had the courage needed for anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush.
His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know the truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, freeing half of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and virtual slavery. And Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair, acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War 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 those "arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of "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, so devoid of a moral compass.
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 unlike almost all of Europe, Bush realizes what is at stake - literally everything.
While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because they seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social Welfare systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We'd rather discuss reducing our 35-hour workweek or our dental coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid vacation... Or listen to TV pastors preach 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? Europe, thy name is Cowardice.
thanks!
Thanks for the ping.
I am saving it too.
Think I'll also mail it around.
excellent article!
Great read.......thanks for the ping
The era of trying to reconcile Islamic values with Enlightenment values has ended, at least in Europe.
The exemplar of Europhile, democratic socialists has come around.
The only question is, when will his successors follow suit?
Sadly though .. Like Churchill and like President Bush .. this gentlemen will be called a kook as well as other names by the "elites" of Europe
This part of the article is a joke, right? Europeans have 4 weeks vacation and work 35 hours a week??? Oh my gosh, how can they make any money doing that? As a business owner, there are too many things I want to accomplish in life and in the business world to work only 35 hours a week. That is so laughable it's a preposterous idea, AND THEY LIVE THAT WAY???. LOLOLOL How embarrassing. Nobodys gets a whole month off, ever, even me. It's enough to take a weeks vacation for me personally.
Here are a couple links
Europe – Thy Name is Cowardice
http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/2004/11/europe_thy_name.html
Europe -- Thy Name Is Cowardice
By Matthias Dopfner
FrontPageMagazine.com | January 7, 2005
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16565
Wow! A European who gets it Ping!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1300147/posts
But can't be repeated enough.
Is that an Iraqi soldier's uniform perhaps?
The vest doesn't seem right for an american soldier.
Then they could use photoshop for the head....
I haven't seen those remarks....Got a link for some here?
Some Europeans, e.g. Bernard Henri-Levy, Orianna Fallaci, Christopher Hitchens, Niall O'Dowd, inter alia, seem to be getting the picture.
The vest. That is not one of our vest.
Oh Teddy, John, over here... I've got something for you to read.
excellent reading, thanks
I found particularly helpful the review by "Shia Muslima"
because she(?) so detests this book, I will have to buy it.
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