[CS-FSLUG] NI: Europe, thy name is Cowardice

[Fred A. Miller]

It's fascinating that this should come out of Europe.  Matthias Dapfner, Chief 
Executive of the huge German publisher Axel Springer AG, has written a 
blistering attack in DIE WELT, Germany's largest daily newspaper, against the 
timid reaction of Europe in the face of the Islamic threat.

This is a must read by all Americans. History will certify its correctness.

EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE
(Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG)

A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am Sonntag, "Europe – your 
family name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get out of your head 
because it's so terribly true.

Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their lives as England and 
France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated too long before they 
noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to toothless agreements.

Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then 
East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe where for decades, inhuman, 
suppressive, and murderous governments were glorified as the ideologically 
correct alternative to all other possibilities.

Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo, and even 
though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder, we Europeans debated and 
debated and debated, and were still debating when finally the Americans had 
to come from halfway around the world, into Europe yet again, and do our work 
for us.

Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East, European appeasement, 
camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance," now countenances suicide 
bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians.

Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe to ignore nearly 500,000 
victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the 
self-righteousness of the peace-movement, has the gall to issue bad grades to 
George Bush... Even as it is uncovered that the loudest critics of the 
American action in Iraq made illicit billions, no, TENS of billions, in the 
corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program.

And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque form of appeasement...
How is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by Islamic fundamentalists 
in Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really should have a "Muslim 
Holiday" in Germany.

I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial fraction of our (German) 
Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the German people, actually 
believe that creating an Official State "Muslim Holiday" will somehow spare 
us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists.

One cannot help but recall Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving the laughable 
treaty signed by Adolph Hitler, and declaring European "Peace in our time".

What else has to happen before the European public and its political 
leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade underway, an especially 
perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims, 
focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies, and 
intent upon Western Civilization's utter destruction.

It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than any of the great 
military conflicts of the last century - a conflict conducted by an enemy 
that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and "accommodation" but is actually 
spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to be, and will always be 
taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness.

Only two recent American Presidents had the courage needed for 
anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush.

His American critics may quibble over the details, but we Europeans know the 
truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, freeing half 
of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror and virtual slavery. And 
Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair, acting on moral 
conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War against democracy. His 
place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have 
passed.

In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic self-confidence in the 
multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal society's values and being 
an attractive center of power on the same playing field as the true great 
powers, America and China.

On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in contrast to those 
"arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of "tolerance", which even 
(Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily justifiably criticizes.

Why? Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so materialistic, 
so devoid of a moral compass.

For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar, huge amounts of 
additional national debt, and a massive and persistent burden on the American 
economy - because unlike almost all of Europe, Bush realizes what is at stake 
- literally everything.

While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons" of America because they 
seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend our Social Welfare 
systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive! We'd rather discuss reducing 
our 35-hour workweek or our dental coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid 
vacation... Or listen to TV pastors preach about the need to "reach out to 
terrorists. To understand and forgive".

These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who, with shaking hands, 
frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when she notices a robber 
breaking into a neighbor's house.

Appeasement? Europe, thy name is Cowardice.

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