I was in Amsterdam several months aqo on business and got a good look at the situation and talked to some of the academics in my field--who actually were friendlier regarding the US than our own academics.
In and out to the airport, the taxi drivers were both Dutch. Both were insane (no, make that crazed) on the subject of Muslims. Neither one had a single practical solution to the issue--in fact, neither had heard of what they might do (I asked.)
But the Dutch are in a terrible jam--all of their own making. Few want to invest in the Netherlands. The rich Dutch make investments outside of the Netherlands. Their young people (such as there are) have no real interest in working. The social programs cost gudzillions of Euro's, but they can't keep them going without massive influxes of resources. No leader can really lead since that means the Dutch will have to come to grips with what they have done--and that they have been trained not to do.
Oh, yes, when you get back from Amsterdam, tell me if you have ever seen a filthier city in its downtown area.
We should be taking lessons . . . !
McVey
I think there is something really arrogant (yet foolish) about the Western leaders of the last 30 years or so. For some reason, they have concluded that it is necessary to throw the precedence and common sense of millenia out the window at the behest of a few interest groups. I don't know if any civilization in history ever went throught the following: massive social welfare programs that sap the initiative, the gutting of its religion, inviting in huge influxes of immigrants hostile to the native culture, the embrace of gayness, and a collective decision not to have kids. Now take all those trends, and compress them in to a forty year period. How many survived? None that I know about.