[Luigi Vasellini]

bttt

[Chgogal]

Wow! There so many good passages in this opinion piece I just don't know where to begin. :)

A most lovely PING!

[TheGeezer]

I wonder...did anyone write stuff like this at the threshold of the medieval period?

[A. Pole]

European Civilisation Has Sown the Seeds of Its Own Decline and Fall (Should be required reading!)

Bump.

[datura]

Good post.

"When its American ally was attacked in September 2001, Europe gamely offered to reciprocate for US protection in the Cold War, but most European nations lacked the military resources to turn that promise into anything more than tokens.

Then in Iraq in 2003, confronted with a tyrant who had repeatedly thumbed his nose at the international system that Europe supposedly revered, it instinctively recoiled, and a softened-up intellectual elite turned on the Americans instead."

Yes, Europe thought that mere lip service, or better yet their "approval" of our venture in Iraq would more than pay for over 50 years of sacrifices by the American taxpayer and soldier. WRONG. Now, we sit and watch Europe's little experiment in self-aggrandizement shatter on the rocks of human interest, and laugh. Go to Hell Europe. We'll never help you with anything again. Count on it. In fact, given some leadership in DC that has balls, you'll be on our short list of "places to eradicate" if you're not really careful.

[Congressman Billybob]

The writer of this piece is a little too full of himself. He does have the conclusion correct, that Europe is in the process of committing suicide. But he doesn't have a clue about why that is so.

For a shorter and more accurate take on the same situation, click below.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column: "60 Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong"

[Cicero]

An excellent analysis. But it omits a couple of crucial factors. First, birth control and abortion. The European crisis is largely a demographic crisis. Muslims are flooding in because Europeans wanted cheap workers to replace the children they didn't have.

Second, it omits the corruption among the ruling classes in France, Belgium and elsewhere. Europe didn't really stay out of Iraq because they had no military. They stayed out of Iraq because they had corrupt deals with Saddam, as represented by Total-Fina-Elf and the UN Oil for Food program.

A key factor was France, which decided to ally itself with the Muslims instead of America. This was not the first time France acted in this way. France stayed home from the battles of Lepanto and Vienna. Louis XIV forged an alliance with the Grand Turk against the rest of Europe. Europe never for a minute wanted to spring to America's aid after 9/11; except for England, it only pretended to sympathize.

So, the essay is good as far as it goes, but it omits key factors.

[happyathome]

Like most things, I suspect that the Euro press is overreacting to the French and Dutch votes. Yes, the constitution is dead, but does anyone think the French/German political elites are just going to go away? Just throw up their hands and say "oh, we didn't know you felt like that."?

Of course not. The EU bureaucracy and the French/German elites are going to work hard to overturn their own voters' increasing euro-skepticism. Disgust at that may, finally, cause the UK to begin to disengage and lead the Dutch and some others into a closer understanding with the States.

[Betaille]

Wow... he really sums it all up!

[King Prout]

ping

[Betaille]

Is it possible??? Are the Europeans finally starting to "get it"?

[RedRover]

"At home [in Europe]...moral relativism, bred by years of pampered prosperity, was creating its own destructive forces. Again, egged on by intellectual elites, Europeans were encouraged to despise the civilisation that had nurtured them."

Great piece! And obviously sadly true of many of our fellow Americans as well.

[dead]

embraced peace as a strategy

Just like declaring "prosperity" as an economic policy.

Good call on the required reading. A fine article.

[ellery]

bump

[CHARLITE]

Superb post, quidnunc. And thanks, King Prout, for the heads up. I'm so glad that I was able to read this one.

Now that I have done so, just about when to you suppose "old Europe" will begin yelling "Uncle" again, as they have twice already in less than 100 years?

And will Uncle go save them again? We may not have a choice, unless we decide to simply cede all of Europe to Islam. What a thought. Yet it's clearly coming and could be a reality inside of 20 years.......or less.

It is both amazing and appalling to me that "very old Europe" is kicking us in the shins, without the slightest thought on their part (or that of their current leaders), that we are their only true hope........"the last great hope of mankind on earth"......unless you want to also include the Australians.

Char

Gerhardt Schoeder

[Frank_2001]

Excellent article!

[JasonC]

What kind of defeatist lazy bums consider willing workers abroad a "threat", rather than an opportunity?

[AFPhys]

Ping: You'll not want to miss this thread.

[lainde]

bttt

[Polybius]

Forty-five years after the Second World War, continental Western Europe could plausibly claim to have created a kind of postmodern nirvana — a half-continent-wide zone of unparalleled prosperity, cushioned by an apparently permanent peace among some of the most historically murderous peoples on Earth.

That is called the Pax Americana.