A European Awakening Against Islamic Fascism? (Victor Davis Hanson alert)

RealClearPolitics.com (Commentary) ^ | 2/6/2006 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Dark Skies]

fyi

[Eagles6]

bump

[Dark Skies]

There are more diamonds and pearls in this article by VDH that I have found in all other editorials since the beginning of the new year.

This article is like a "feel great movie" for news junkies!

[snowsislander]

This is an excellent article by Dr. Hanson. Thank you for posting it.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

One has to wonder if Europe really cares about Israel? I think some leaders do care. Blair and Merkel care. Also other countries like Italy, Denmark, Netherlands etc. France seems ticked off at Assad and concerned about Iran. Still, will they join us in air strikes on Iran?

[steadfastconservative]

As usual, Hanson is right on target.

[Jenny Hatch]

"This article is like a "feel great movie" for news junkies!"



I know exactly what you mean.

Jenny

[bert]

.....The new European Union.....

The union is ephemeral rather than real. It cannot function as a concentrated source of force. Action if any will be on a state by state basis.

[mosquitobite]

Amen!

[JasonC]

"It is one thing to subsidize a double-talking Arafat, quite another to keep giving money to terrorists who openly promise to finish the European holocaust."

Indeed it is. So, has any European government or the EU as a whole reduce funding to Hamas by one centime?

No?

[metmom]

A European Awakening Against Islamic Fascism?

One can only hope. If they don't, in a few years they're done.

[johnny7]

Has Europe awakened to the specter of a mullah laying a scimitar to its throat? Maybe, but the real question is... what will it DO about it?!

[BadAndy]

The tide may be turning as far as EuroPeon attitudes toward the enemys withing the gates. That is good news. It is also good news that the Mohammedians (pigs be upon them) like the Germans in WWII have overplayed their hand and have bitten off more than they can chew.

[EricT.]

As usual, VDH says what I have been thinking... only much more eloquently. Europe will wake up one of these days and decide that enough is enough. I just wish it happened 2 years ago.

[Red6]

They say the threat before too. Just politicians like Schroeder played games.

Under the table they HAD to cooperate to make all the prisoner flights that they were so "shocked" about happen. Think of the logistics alone!

Many in Europe were simply playing a game and denying the obvious. The awakening is not at the ministerial level, for those like Schroeder always knew the truth. The awakening is for the layperson who was being living the life of a mushroom, while their government preached that this threat is just a figment of George Bush's imagination.

Most in Europe are playing the political advantageous – be anti war, anti US and pander to the political left while also pandering to some nationalist movement. Were and are they so stupid not to know the truth? No –

It’s a sad statement about much of Europe’s society, their politics and national resolve in what has been unfolding in the last few years.

[BillCompton]

[The European Union] has a greater gross domestic product than that of America and could, in theory, field military forces as disciplined and as well equipped as our own.

Ahhh! Victor David Hanson is human after all. The first part of the statement is not true. The second is very dubious.

According to the CIA World Factbook:
EU's GDP is $12.18 trillion (2005 est.)
USA's GDP is $12.37 trillion (2005 est.)
The EU would need another Switzerland, Denmark or Sweeden to be bigger. They used to be much larger. Next year, they would need to add another Sweeden to stay even.

Regarding the second point, they theoretically could, but politically, it would be impossible. They do not have a unified government to administer the military.

Technically, VDH could be correct if you measure the GDP at "Offical Exchange Rate" instead of "Purchasing Power Parity", but then my point would be moot. So, I prefer to look at it in a way that makes me right and him wrong. In this way, I am smarter than him ... is (are)?

[aculeus]

BTTT

[G.Mason]

" ... the Green European leadership who came of age in the street theater of 1968 ... "

A good punch in the nose to the Leftists, by Hanson, and inirectly the American Euro-weenie lovers.

" ... the Europeans found very quickly that for all their subtlety and exalted rhetoric they did no better than George Bush in dealing with these anti-Western fanatics."

Indeed, they did not. And now the scrambling begins.

" ... And should we ever see a true alliance of such Western powers, the war against the fascists of the Middle East would be simply over in short order."

I won't hold my breath for that one.

[wideawake]

It has a greater gross domestic product than that of America and could, in theory, field military forces as disciplined and as well equipped as our own.

You need numerous and brave young people to field an army as disciplined as America's.

Non-Muslim young people are in increasingly shorter supply in Europe.

A combination of Western European wealth and Eastern European youth might do it.

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>Still, will they join us in air strikes on Iran?
Hah! They wouldn't even let Ronald Reagan use their air space when he bombed Libya.