From: rhondeau2001@yahoo.com   
      
   EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE   
      
   Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG)   
      
   A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in WELT AM SONNTAG (Sunday World):   
      
      
   "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, 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 UN. 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 Adolf 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.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)