Posted on 11/17/2007 9:40:53 AM PST by goldstategop
So Americans should be thankful they have one of the last functioning nation-states. Europeans, because they've been so inept at exercising it, no longer believe in national sovereignty, whereas it would never occur to Americans not to. This profoundly different attitude to the nation-state underpins, in turn, Euro-American attitudes to transnational institutions such as the United Nations.
But on this Thanksgiving the rest of the world ought to give thanks to American national sovereignty, too. When something terrible and destructive happens – a tsunami hits Indonesia, an earthquake devastates Pakistan – the United States can project itself anywhere on the planet within hours and start saving lives, setting up hospitals and restoring the water supply.
Aside from Britain and France, the Europeans cannot project power in any meaningful way anywhere. When they sign on to an enterprise they claim to believe in – shoring up Afghanistan's fledgling post-Taliban democracy – most of them send token forces under constrained rules of engagement that prevent them doing anything more than manning the photocopier back at the base.
If America were to follow the Europeans and maintain only shriveled attenuated residual military capacity, the world would very quickly be nastier and bloodier, and far more unstable. It's not just Americans and Iraqis and Afghans who owe a debt of thanks to the U.S. soldier but all the Europeans grown plump and prosperous in a globalized economy guaranteed by the most benign hegemon in history.
That said, Thanksgiving isn't about the big geopolitical picture, but about the blessings closer to home.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Who are they voting for?
I know my Brit in-laws get a lot of their info from Michael Moore (not to mention the Beeb). Their viewpoint is decidedly left of mine. Nice people, judging from my in-laws, not all foreigners are well-informed. They're as ignorant as many of us Yanks about what's going on in the world.
Mark S...nails it once again.
Fred for President. Mark Steyn for Fred’s Karl Rove.
Yes, it rankles that they deride us while counting on our sacrifice of our finest youths for their survival.
(By the way, I've had the same tagline for months. He must have recycled it, because it's in this column, too.)
One would have never believed Americans would ever give up their personal sovereignty, either, but that's long gone.
Yes, to paraphase Barzini, "Europe is proud of its past. America is proud of its future." Of course, he said that before the leftwing 'rats seized contol of the cultural heights.
Don't you just love Barzini? Thanks for mentioning him. I read both his book about Italy and the one about the U.S.
American taxpayers foot the bill for that opportunity.
That's a "free trade" subsidy in action.
The problem is that these thugs are killing the goose that laid their golden nest eggs.
See tag line.
“I come as one who wishes you
to fulfill completely
your noble destiny
of service to the world.”
Those were the words of Pope John Paul upon his first visit to America.
Splendid and truthfilled tagline you have there, CyberAnt.
Some of my ancestors came from somewhere in Asia, probabl;y about 10,000 years ago. Some came from Western Europe a few hundred years ago. All the same, America really began in 1776.
Knock off the personal insults.
Mark Steyn: Among the greatest Americans ever to be born outside the USA.
Perhaps it is your sense of scale which is out of touch.
There is no invasion happening. An invasion is one nation's incursion into another with the intent of conquering and plundering. These are overwhelmingly destitute people coming for work. Yes, there was one large march in the streets back in March, organized by George Soros, as protected by the 1st Amendment. Yes, there are two Border Patrol agents in prison, out of maybe 12,000, who were convicted of shooting two unarmed men in the backs as they were running into Mexico, but their convictions were meted out by Americans in an American court of law, not by Mexicans. The other 11,998 Border Patrol agents are not in prison, but are on the job. And yes, President Bush did call the general actions of Minutemen 'vigilantes' as if our national sovereignty depended on men sitting in lawn chairs.
Taken as a whole, your apparent contention that Americans no longer believe in national sovereignty is out of touch.
Thanks! But .. I can’t take credit for it - I heard Rush Limbaugh say it and it just struck a cord with me.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.