'To The Barricades!'

HUMAN EVENTS ^ | Mar 24, 2006 | Oliver North

[neverdem]

I thought it was just the Japanese who denied history about World War II.

It was undiplomatic to say it, but I can understand Rumsfeld succumbing to the temptation when he called Germany and France, "old Europe."

[Fraxinus]

Clueless Euroweenie ping.

[Billthedrill]

Ah, college students - what don't they know? College is fantasy-land, and most of them haven't figured out yet that the same "system" that they're trying to bring down is responsible for running those spring break trains to Paris and bringing beer and Internet connectivity to their favorite haunts. Some of them will never leave the womb - we call those "professors."

[patton]

There is a problem brewing in germany - as the WWII generation dies off, the younger generations will engage in considerable revisionism.

And that could lead to trouble.

[CROSSHIGHWAYMAN]

There will be a time soon enough when Europe begs America for help.

The Cold War was a colossal waste of our money.

Perhaps if Western Europe had suffered under the Soviet boot for 50 years like eastern Europe.....

perhaps they would appreciate freedom.

Those who do not bleed for their own freedom cannot know how valuable it is.

[Jaysun]

I've been to Heidelberg several times, it's a beautiful place with an old castle on the hill overlooking the city. I forget how many steps one climbs to reach the castle (hundreds) but we always go up anyway and admire the view.

My wife is from Germany and we get several newspapers mailed to us each month. The German "news" goes beyond propaganda, I think it merits a new word.

It's easier to understand their ignorance when one reads what they're inundated with day after day. They always seem shocked to hear someone say that President Bush didn't plan 9/11 or that our unemployment rate is half of what their's is. Unlike the American left, the Germans seem to be open to having their false ideas challenged. I've converted many.

[Steel Wolf]

There is a problem brewing in germany - as the WWII generation dies off, the younger generations will engage in considerable revisionism.

Considering that the 'younger generation' is increasingly Muslim, they'll be lucky if 'revisionism' is all that happens to their history. Muslims dismiss events in the Arab world prior to Islam as pagan, and unworthy of attention. I'm sure they'll feel the same about the history of pre-Islamic Europe.

[SittinYonder]

This is an excellent column from Oliver North.

When the wall came down in Berlin and the Soviet Union crumbled, many saw it as a victory over communism. I think instead it was like the dam broke and a tidal wave swept over Europe. Especially in Germany, those who had lived under the oppression of communism all their lives were unable or unwilling to take ownership of themselves and have sought a government to take care of them. Those attitudes mixed with the West Germans and prevailed, but not just in Germany - across the continent.

I know Europeans always disagree with me when I make this statement, but I've seen little evidence to the contrary. Big government with huge nanny state intervention in every aspect of a person's life is rampant in Europe.

And while "students" everywhere tend to be liberal activists of one kind or another in their cute little Che Guevera berets, Europe seems to have little opposition to the Marxism and anti-capitalism being espoused on its university campuses.

[patton]

true.

[FreedomPoster]

Ping.

[NZerFromHK]

Heidelberg is a hotbed of leftism even by German standards. In other words, Ollie North was speaking to people who could well be some of his most diametric opposing side on political ideology.

[NZerFromHK]

BTW, I find it strange that German university students can't recall who Ollie North is. He couldn't be that anonymous, with Iran-Contra focus and his conservative pedigree.

[NZerFromHK]

Ping!

[cinives]

Germans, French, Belgians, Scandinavians - all wanted a government to take care of them long before the wall came down.

[Billthedrill]

I find it strange that German university students can't recall who Ollie North is.

You're going to hate me for saying this, but Iran-Contra was 1986 and half of the underclassmen weren't born yet. "Weren't born yet." Say that aloud and taste my cup of bitterness...

:-)

[NZerFromHK]

That sounds reasonable. I was born in the late 70s so I remember Iran-Contra. Still, isn't it a bit ironic that Germans are supposed to be very well-informed about the world and as the cream of their society, German university students should be doubly so, and yet they fail to know the avil-Reagan-and-Iran-Contra-debacle? LOL

[SittinYonder]

Germans, French, Belgians, Scandinavians - all wanted a government to take care of them long before the wall came down.

Maybe so, but I believe in the last 15 to 20 years the desire for a nanny state in most European countries has increased dramatically.

[NZerFromHK]

Also don't forget this is the very same university that Joseph Goebbels graduated from. But a good tourist site though.

[BufordP]

Thanks for the ping!

[Red6]

In Germany you have strong socialist under tones. Europe as a whole was rocked by the socialist movements of Marx and later the national Socialists like Hitler and Mussolini or Franco. Then came the Cold War and you had decades of indoctrination in the former DDR, radio Moscow FDJ/Young pioneers etc. The German today has this “socialist” view imprinted on him in his TV, radio, schools even. Germany as a whole is very heavily socialist influenced through it’s past love affairs with it.

The German today is taught that the NAZI is the opposite end of the spectrum from the Communist. But they fail to accept the fact that a NAZI (NSDAP) was basically a national socialist (National SOZIALISTICHE Deutsche Arbeiter Partei). They can’t swallow this truth because it would tarnish their belief in socialism, something they hold dear to.

To the German bucking the Americans also serves other purposes. It’s a matter of pride (We are someone again), a new sense of sovereignty (They are hyper sensitive and this is politically exploited often), they think it makes them “intellectual” by making such profound statements. Underlying there is also some fundamental ideological differences since they are very socialist and we are not. Then add in some resentment from WWII and a bit of a feeling of inferiority. Like the French who insist French be a second official language of NATO, the Germans today dislike our dominance. Fact is, we are dominant from Defense, to politics or even sports and economics. To the German it’s as if they are “America’s little helper” and the US TELLS THEM what and how to do. There is a reason why Merkel made it a point to define herself and take position on the over flights of US prisoners. In German it’s called “Bevormundung” and the Germans are irritated by it.

But what else can you expect? Ultimately the US is near 5 times the German economy, with today near 10 times the defense budget, 3.5 times the population. In number of Nobel prizes won, patents and copyrights we lead world wide. We either win or are in the top three in the Olympics and Lance Armstrong won again! What do you expect? Who is really the world leader in IT, Aerospace…….? Everywhere you go you have America this America that. German bands like Ramstein make songs about it, the French even pass laws the limit the broadcasting of foreign made radio/TV programming (Who is the real target here?)………..

In reality Germany goes along with us because ALL our geo-political interests are 100% aligned.

Islamic terror threat, Iran nukes, China patents, Libya sponsoring terror…….. it does not matter if we are talking about Belarus or Sudan, our interests are 100% identical. In fact you can break our interests into broad categories at the geo-political level:

1. Free access to resources
2. Open free lines of communication/transit in air land and water
3. Regional stability in certain areas
4. Patent/copyright protection

But why is it that Tony Blair feels compelled to make statements constantly that he is not America’s stooge? Is Great Britain in reality protecting it’s vital interests? Absolutely! But in concert with the US, any cooperation is always perceived as being an American initiative.

Example: Balkans. This was a military endeavor pushed politically primarily by Great Britain and Germany. But who ended up fighting the air war in all reality? Who do the Serbs see as being behind this campaign and in fact who is the target of most the wars criticism? Most people even in Germany don’t realize that it was their government that pushed for intervention there!

Another example: Iran. As the EU negotiates with Iran reference it’s nuclear program who do the Iranians address near all their speeches, and other public messages too? The US.

But there is an aspect which the European does not understand either. While many in Germany have inferiority complexes and want to say “Nein” just so they can say that they do have a word to say. The truth is, who did pay the ultimate price in the Balkans? Which nation had 32 people die? The US. Who was it that bombed Libya several times, sent in operators to blow up a WMD facility years ago and and and? The US. He who pays the cost politically (And Bush is paying a political toll for the decisions made), economically (87.5 BILLION just in 2004 for Iraq and Afghanistan), militarily (in dead and invalids) has a say. Not to say that Germany does not matter, but he who pays, makes the decisions. Germany wants a say and wants to matter, but they don’t want to pay the price. That’s a simple fact of life. It’s the US that took dead in Lebanon, has had troops in Sinai since the mid 70’s (Most Germans don’t even know that) and and and. The EU can spew all it’s rhetoric about the Middle East, but it’s actions that matter. It’s the doer of deeds, not the mere critic that matters (Theodore Roosevelt):

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

What you have today is a situation where at the geo-political levels we are 100% aligned with MOST of Europe. We are economic competitors, and politics get raveled up in that too. But nonetheless, all our interests coincide. It’s shear spite, envy and ideological contempt that is the root for most of these games today.

How do you as a German socialist look at the US and justify socialism to a bunch of young children in a German school? You tell them about 35 million uninsured, the plight of black America, or have a special on Flint Michigan. There is a reason why the German has so much “Schadenfreude” over Iraq or with GM or our re estate market. None of these stories unfolded the way they predicted, but their "wishful" thinking was just to obvious. In the big picture it’s more than just Iraq that is burning them up. You don’t have to scratch hard nor deep to see the wishful thinking in their media, even in casual conversation of the street. While in all reality it would even endanger their own security to have Iraq spiral out of control, they sure would love to see us get a bloody nose. People always like to see the big guy fall - Ask Microsoft.

It’s a situation where we have the same goals but the sidebar issues, the petty emotional side debates are dominating the REAL problems out there. Iran is a real problem, but ultimately it will be the internal political climate which drives Germany’s foreign policy and much of Germany's behavior in the last few years is solely based on emotion and ideology, lacking all pragmatism or realism. Let's see how Iran unfolds.