[wizardoz]

Oh, we know Europeans know wars. We've watched them start plenty, which is why I don't know where they get off telling us that they can do it but we can't, without their permission. And we notice they tend to s**t where they eat, so we wonder why they think they're smarter than we are.

[VaBthang4]

"Europeans are a cowardly bunch of ungrateful wimps, whose anti-American bombast is a merely a cover for their complicity with evil regimes.

It may be true...."

No, it is true. And stop trying to lump Britain in with Europeans.

Coward!

[PackerBoy]

... oh, and about having American save our sorry butts a couple of times.

[Argus]

The only Europeans who "know war" in the sense intended are those who were old enough in 1945 to feel the direct impact. Otherwise, they don't know war any better than American civilians do. And probably not nearly as well as those American civilians in the vicinity of the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11/2001.

[Bigg Red]

Marking to read later for all of the great FR come-backs.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

The problem is that European's don't know how to finish wars.
That's what we're here for.

God bless and protect our fine troops.

[mr.pink]

Perle, a former chairman of the Defense Policy Board, stated that European nations "do not have the most courageous of instincts,"

Remarkable arrogance once again from one of the world's foremost warmongers.

I keep doing internet seaches for his military resume, but it never does seem to appear....It does seems that he is of an age where surely there was a war available for him to strut his stuff, and shame the cowards.

[Joe 6-pack]

The next time one must subject themself to an arrogant european, simply ask what country they are from. When they reply, plead ignorance and ask, "Now, is that one of the countries whose ass we saved, or whose ass we kicked?"

[Monti Cello]

Ha! What a perfect demonstration of Perle's point.

We are showing the foresight to nip the next one in the bud, rather than wait 20 years before Europe gets overrun by the next band of world-conquerors, and Americans are expected to clean up the mess.

And what to make of Kosovo? Europe was more than happy to cede the role of peacemaker to the US. Now it doesn't suit their interests. Tough nuts.

[68 grunt]

I prefer not to be forgiven for believing that Europeans are a cowardly bunch of ungrateful wimps, whose anti-American bombast is a merely a cover for their complicity with evil regimes. I'd also not like to be forgiven for recognizing them as socialist, wannabe commies, whose gubmints can't be trusted.

[Kirkwood]

I think Americans were deeply and permanently changed by our Civil War. We learned of the depravity of war far sooner than the Europeans (and some have yet to learn this).

[gobucks]

American soldiers tend not to be afraid of being laughed at...and based on my conversations w/ Europeans, yes, the war years informed them to an extent. But, the lack of courage is not due to being afraid of bullets then over there.

The "modern" Europe is a Lord-of-the-Flies land of comedy, and people for the most part are utterly terrified of being laughed at if they say or support something that is viewed as "wrong". Much of European history is about how wrong they have been about so much. Hasn't changed much.

Being laughed at is seen as a flag .... sort of like the guy on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, where he points at the last non-invaded body, and makes a hideous screech to alert the other aliens of the target.

In this case, most Europeans point and say, cuckoo...cuckoo, while twirling their fingers about their temples. And the laughter thus breeds the cowardice... That's why indecisiveness plagues this continent.

[onedoug]

Europeans think themselves too sophisticated to admit that evil is real.

[Chi-townChief]

"But World War II was mercifully different for America. Despite its debilitating losses - and its astonishing selflessness in prioritizing the European theater ahead of its own mission in the Pacific ..."

Of course, now they'd be saying: "Why is the US attacking Germany instead of Japan. They have no proof linking Hitler to December 7th!" And Susie Sarandon would be on TV: "I'd like to know what Germany ever did to us!"

[.cnI redruM]

Quid, we know you and love you, but these non-barf alert posts are getting really hard on my esophagus, Bro.

[VaBthang4]

I posted this prior to the War.

______________________________________

I am aware of the news today about the French and Germans continuing to test the limits of American resolve where Iraqi disarmament is concerned. When we as Americans see our one time allies making an obvious, desperate almost vicious stand against what to us is a principled purpose, it can be uncomfortable and a motivation to examine ourselves. It can be difficult for us to accept the notion that our European neighbors [and in many respects, lineage] could possibly be so completely incorrect. I mean they are Europeans, right? They have been around quite a few centuries more than we have and are therefore much wiser, correct? They must know something we don’t know. They must see something we don’t see.

Point blank: They don’t.

Their stand against us stems purely from a position of self-protection and an unwillingness to humbly admit their past dealings with Saddam Hussein's Iraq were wrong...and quite possibly...illegal. As to the United Nations. I think we all with open face comprehend their motives. I doubt there is a reasonable Man alive today or in times past that would label the UN a reserve of resolve for freedom and liberty. Theirs is a repository of effeminate confusions and vicious slander intent on defiling truth and sincerity. They are to be dismissed outright and not worthy of consideration when confronting the difficult paths of Mankind.
We have chosen the difficult path against Iraq. The decision is that Iraq must be fully disarmed. If we do not do this now, millions possibly tens of millions will pay for our lack of resolve in the future. That is not vainglory meant to dismay the feeble minded. It is brutal reality meant to shock Men to their senses.

We are all legitimately afraid of War. Courage is doing what has to be done...in the face of legitimate fear. Even with our overwhelming superiority...we still fear the destruction it causes. We fear the innocence it destroys, the youth it steals...but as Americans we must deal with the reality that War....is the way of Man. If the righteous do not wield the sword then the unrighteous will. It is default and no amount of shallow, perfumed discussion can change that.
If we [US and England] do not call the shots...then lesser beings will. If our motives do not determine the outcome...then impure motives will. This is our responsibility. History stands by for our decision...that decision will echo for eternity in one of two places...the halls of righteousness or the depths of treason and wickedness.

We may not walk on water but neither do our enemies and at some point in the course of freedom you draw the line and hold it.
The complete disarmament of Iraq is that line.
We must hold it, right here, right now. In the face of all the rage from our opponents, in the face of all the dissent of our Benedicts, in spite of the whispering lies of Men of false nobility….

…Iraq must be disarmed, completely…

Or else.


______________________________________


Today's revelations of Iraqis beginning to uncover an "Oil for Support" Conspiracy only serves to further emphasize the point.

[Loyal Buckeye]

The writer neglected to write about the part where the Europeans acquiesced to Hitler as he was building his war machine and taking the first steps toward WWII

A little backbone would have prevented that war.

[clintonh8r]

But as a European myself-I'm from Britain....

I know many Brits who don't consider themselves Europeans. They consider themselves Brits.

[Mr. Mojo]

Perle.......stated that European nations "do not have the most courageous of instincts," with the implication that America has to intervene in international affairs because Europeans are afraid to. ....as a European myself — I'm from Britain — it doesn't feel true.

Relax, Fletcher. He's talking about continental Europe, not you Brits.

[Billthedrill]

The author is a journalist, not a military person, or he might know better. It is the United States, not Europe, who has most recently been scarred by a major conflict, and Vietnam is still very fresh in the minds of my generation of citizens. We were long ago disabused of any naive notions of war, and long ago informed at tedious length of the European experience in turning their beautiful countrysides into charnel houses.

Nor have we forgotten Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and if some Europeans have it is understandable but not forgivable. It is they, and not we, who have presented the world with the central moral dilemma of our time: how much can one ignore in the interest of not dirtying one's hands, and at what point do scruples and a preference for the niceties of international order become the handcuffs that allow cowards to oppress the weak unhindered? These are not academic questions.

For the author to presume to speak for a country, his own, Great Britain, who has certainly learned these lessons well, and had the courage to defy the stormwinds of European criticism to stand by us, is simply sad. To those British friends reading this I apologize for him - if he doesn't know any better, we do.