Didn't care much for Frau, komm, didya?
But it can get worse:
Posted on 03/21/2005 6:57:48 PM PST by quidnunc
Jeff Gedmin lured me to Berlin the other week with the prospect of good talk — specifically, an interesting exchange of views with some journalists, politicians, policymakers, Foreign Ministry planners, Britain's ambassador to Germany, and the U.S. chargé d'affaires (our old ambassador has left, and no replacement has been named). Jeff, who is fluent in German, runs the Aspen Institute Berlin, which he has made the de facto U.S. embassy. I was curious to learn whether the Rice-Bush charm offensive had had any discernible effect on Germany's decidedly anti-Bush, anti-American policies.
I suppose I should have divined the answer from the comfort of my London sitting room. Instead, I was unprepared for what I learned. The rules of engagement prevent me from identifying the people with whom I spoke, but their views about the president's trip were so nearly uniform that there's no need to name names.
My interlocutors — who on other subjects had wide-ranging views — all emphatically agreed on one thing: Bush should stop talking about "freedom." Several people had counted the times our president had used the F-word. They noted that Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had avoided using it at all. The Germans prefer "stability" to disturbing the status quo by trying to spread "freedom."
They also agreed that nothing would induce Schröder to provide any help to America in Iraq, although he will continue to give marginal assistance in training Iraqi police and soldiers elsewhere. Most felt that Germany had done enough by sending troops to Afghanistan. None expected Schröder to abandon his election-winning anti-American rhetoric.
An underlying theme was that America has overreacted to September 11, which most of those I spoke with saw as an incident rather than part of a "war." Said one, "We know war, and we don't like it."
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at aspenberlin.org ...
One of the most infuriating of the vacuities of Old Europe - "we know war and you don't." Really? We weren't entirely unfamiliar with that activity when dragged into the European versions in 1917 and 1941, and have been rather more familiar with its modern variations in the 60 years since 1945, than, say, the ones pontificating about it above.
Let's be honest here - those who really do remember that war as participants are in their 80's, and the rest are blowing smoke. They need a new argument. That one's grown stale.
Panzers were not manned by pansies, which explains why that's all they have left.
"We know war and we don't like it."
In point of fact, almost all of the Germans who experienced war and the military state are gone now. They didn't participate in Korea, Vietnam, nor Gulf I or Gulf II.
The warlike Germans have become lambs.
Didn't care much for Frau, komm, didya?
But it can get worse:
Not the first time. The Angles, Saxons and some Jutes (as you surely know, Germanic tribes) kicked Pict and Celt butt beginning in the 5th Century AD; then, they settled down and, over the next few hundred years, became farmers and pastoralists. Then, the Vikings came and kicked their butts until King Harold.
It's all cyclical...
Too bad Jonathan Swift isn't still alive. I keep getting this image of these people at a quilting bee stiching their tongues together and I'm sure Swift would know how to properly use such an image. If I can't get anything else from these useless Euros, I should like some good satire.
Alas, satire is dead.
Not "might not have happened". Rather, "would not have happened".
Hitler's top generals were certain that France & Britain would not stand for Hitler marching troops into the Ruhr in flagrant violation of the Versailles Treaty. They knew that Germany was still far too weak at that time to stand up to the Frogs and Limeys. So they had laid the groundwork for a coup and were ready to execute it the moment Britain & France made any kind of a military response to Hitler's provocation. The generals were absolutely astounded that Hitler got away with it scot free, and the coup was DOA.
I hadn't heard this about the German press, but I've always assumed it was true, based on my knowledge of the anti-American press in other European countries such as Britain and Norway.
When I argue with Leftists on the sidewalk here in Colorado and they repeatedly ask me, "Well, then, just WHY do people in other countries hate us????," I respond with a number of anecdotes to demonstrate that the foreign media tell worse lies about Dubya and the USA than our own press does!
LoL....
Socialism being slavery by government, damn right the Germans are upset about using the F-Word(freedom)... This is a funny article.. Afraid to use the word F.R.E.E.D.O.M..., now thats a blockbuster.. And would make a damned funny movie besides..
LoL.......
Yeah. Let somebody else do it for us.
I really do think about this kind of stuff sometimes. I think there's something to it, btw.
"Too bad Jonathan Swift isn't still alive. I keep getting this image of these people at a quilting bee stiching their tongues together and I'm sure Swift would know how to properly use such an image. If I can't get anything else from these useless Euros, I should like some good satire.
Alas, satire is dead."
You need to read some Mark Steyn immediately. He coined "Eurinals", "Eurabia", and other priceless barbs.
I've noticed with wry amusement that you get a more accurate view of the US from the government news media in communist police-state countries than in the nominally free press of Europe. Sure, the communists will editorialize the hell out of the news, but they'll more or less give you the straight facts and you can ignore the editorializing. The European news, by comparison, is incredibly deceptive in its portrayal of the facts, but then editorializes it in a fashion as to appear like they are objective.
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