European opinion on the Iraq War

This article came out of Europe. Written by Matthias Dapfner, Chief Executive of the huge German publisher Axel Springer AG, posted in Germany's largest daily paper.

History will certify his correctness.

Look at what has been happening in Europe the last couple of weeks. For all practical purposes the Islamic fundamentalists won Spain with only a couple of bombs in public places. Now they are burning Paris and hitting on Holland and Belgium.

Lose the battle, and our grandchildren will be speaking Arabic, IF they survive the "conversion".



EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE

(A posted commentary written by Mathias Dapfner, CEO, Axel Springer, AG)

A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in the Sunday paper, "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 negotiated and hesitated too long before they noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to paper agreements.

After WW II, appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in the Soviet Union, then East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe and for decades, inhuman, suppressive, murderous governments were glorified as an acceptable alternative to democracy.

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 again, and do our work for us.

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

Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe ( and too many Americans as well) 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 we see 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 France, 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 Europe has "Peace in our time".

What else has to happen before the European public and its political leadership get it? There is a crusade underway, an especially perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks by fanatic Muslims, focused on civilians, directed against our free, open Western societies, and it is 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 - it will be 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 England's Tony 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 America and Great Britain.

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 criticizes.

Why? Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because we're so materialistic and 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 - it's 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. We say, "Stay out of it!" and "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.