[quidnunc]

Quote:

But the idea of a childless Europe rivalling America militarily or economically is laughable. Sometime this century there will be 500 million Americans, and what’s left in Europe will either be very old or very Muslim. That’s the Europe that Britain will be binding its fate to.

Old, sclerotic and afarid of their own shadows.

[Tax-chick]

Will Japan be an economic powerhouse if it’s populated by Koreans and Filipinos? Possibly. Will Germany if it’s populated by Algerians? That’s a trickier proposition.

Unrivalled. Mark Steyn should be president of the world!

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

BTTT

[theFIRMbss]

>Lesson: America’s and Europe’s world views have diverged significantly, and those world views are now incompatible.

If Clark becomes Prez,
what happens to NATO that
refused his orders,

and then went public
saying Clark and the US
wanted a world war?!

[Pokey78]

The rest of the column. Spectator doesn't need to be excerpted:

Tariq and co. are right to this extent: in the scheme of things, it’s not about Islamic terrorism. The Islamist goal is a planet on which their enemies are either dead or Muslim converts. That’s not going to happen. But Islamism is sufficiently disruptive to rupture permanently the old ‘Western alliance’. A lot of things have been said on both sides, but what’s impressive about the Europeans is the palpable desire for America to fail, and Bush to fall.

I can’t see that happening. On election day next November, the Democrats have no chance of taking back the House of Representatives and they’re all but certain to lose seats in the Senate. Bush is likely to be re-elected: with that 7.2 per cent growth in GDP, it’s hard even for the BBC to keep pretending America’s in the middle of some sort of recession; and whatever happens in Iraq it’s difficult to see the Democrats, running on a foreign policy of Cut & Run, being the beneficiaries. But the trouble with a war on terror is that the victories go unreported — the plotters who get foiled, the bombers who don’t make it through. All you hear about are the defeats. Let’s say there’s a terrorist attack in the US in the next 12 months and it kills several hundred people. On the one hand, you could argue that this shows the soundness of Bush’s judgment in making terrorism the priority of his administration. On the other, you could argue that this proves he never learnt the lessons of the failures of 11 September. Knowing the American media, I’d bet on the latter line being the one they settle on.

But other than that, the arguments over the next few years are going to be between conservatives — between those who think it is worth pushing on with an ambitious programme to bring the Middle East within the non-deranged world, and those who figure that’s doomed to fail and we should settle for something less. This project is in the national interest of the United States but, in the end, the fate of the world’s hyperpower does not hinge on it.

Now let’s turn back to Europe. The Telegraph’s Adam Nicolson got irritated the other day because Denis Boyles of America’s National Review had dismissed the Europeans as ‘cockroaches’. Boyles is wrong. The Europeans are not cockroaches. The cockroach is the one creature you can rely on to come crawling out of the rubble of the nuclear holocaust. Whereas the one thing that can be said with absolute confidence is that the Europeans will not emerge from under their own rubble.

Europe is dying. As I’ve pointed out here before, it can’t square rising welfare costs, a collapsed birthrate and a manpower dependent on the world’s least skilled, least assimilable immigrants. In 20 years’ time, as those Dutch Muslim teenagers are entering the voting booths, European countries, unlike parts of Nigeria, will not be living under Sharia, but they will be reaching their accommodations with their radicalised Islamic compatriots, who like many intolerant types are expert at exploiting the ‘tolerance’ of pluralist societies.

How happy what’s left of the ethnic Dutch or French or Danes will be about this remains to be seen. But the idea of a childless Europe rivalling America militarily or economically is laughable. Sometime this century there will be 500 million Americans, and what’s left in Europe will either be very old or very Muslim. That’s the Europe that Britain will be binding its fate to. Japan faces the same problem: in 2006, its population will begin an absolute decline, a death spiral it will be unlikely ever to climb out of. Will Japan be an economic powerhouse if it’s populated by Koreans and Filipinos? Possibly. Will Germany if it’s populated by Algerians? That’s a trickier proposition.

Last Sunday, recalling the US–Soviet summits that helped ‘ease the tensions of the Cold War’, the New York Times’s Thomas Friedman proposed we hold regular US-Franco-German summits. Implicit in that analysis is the assumption that France and perhaps other Continental countries now exist in a quasi-Cold War with America. If that’s so, the trick is to manage the relationship until the Europeans, like the Soviets, collapse. Europe is dying, and it’s only a question of whether it goes peacefully or through convulsions of violence. On that point, I bet on form.

[.cnI redruM]

I think they seee themselves as the declining Elven kingdoms and Middle Earth and they see the US as The Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Ya know, when I first saw this headline, I was thinknin' that he shouldn't have insulted cockroaches by comparing them to the French and socialist Germans.....

[Porterville]

Looks like a war with Western Europe is inevitable.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[stck]

Seems to me Mr. Steyn is being a tad hysterical. I don't know where to start: there were all kind of smuggled weapons found in Iraq - and Canadians are not even "European".

Mixing a few unrelated facts blown out of proportion together is NOT sound journalism, Mr. Steyn.

[FreedomPoster]

Does anyone have a source for Item #2, the French rockets?

[wimpycat]

I still have faith in the Brits. I don't think they'll adopt the Euro, and I don't think they'll sign on to that horrific document authored by the French and referred to rather ambitiously as a "constitution".

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Europe is dying. As I’ve pointed out here before, it can’t square rising welfare costs, a collapsed birthrate and a manpower dependent on the world’s least skilled, least assimilable immigrants. In 20 years’ time, as those Dutch Muslim teenagers are entering the voting booths, European countries, unlike parts of Nigeria, will not be living under Sharia, but they will be reaching their accommodations with their radicalised Islamic compatriots, who like many intolerant types are expert at exploiting the ‘tolerance’ of pluralist societies.

Money quote, right there. :)

[Sloth]

One of the greatest fictions of the interminable debate on Euro-American differences over Iraq is that it’s an argument about the means, not the end.

Excellent point.

[MEG33]

This is a sobering Steyn article.A great read.

[Smile-n-Win]

Europeans are Worse than Cockroaches

I live in Europe--and I couldn't agree any more with that!

[irv]

Europe is dying, and it’s only a question of whether it goes peacefully or through convulsions of violence. On that point, I bet on form.

Translation: Expect the collapse of "Olde Europe" to be extremely violent.

[vladog]

While the author seems to think that the current European anti-American attitude is something that is relatively new, it is not. Like the Jews America has been hated by Europe since day one.

Since before 1776 America has been pilloried as being populated by uncouth, barbarous, Neanderthals. While Europe is populated by urbane, sophisticated, intelligent people.

For the last 2000 years Europe has been the scene of countless wars, genocides, The Inquisition, and thousands of other urban, sophisticated, and intelligent events.

While America's skirts are not lily white, at least we have in most instances tried to do the right thing.

In my view the less we have to do with Europe the better. You are not known by the friends you make, but rather by the enemies you have.

[Sunsong]

"Lesson: In the war on terror, the United States believes in pre-emption; Canada, like many other ‘allies’, believes in pre-emptive surrender. These two strategies are incompatible."

Time to wake and realize that Canada is not our friend. Time to wake up and realize that Canada poses a real threat...

[xp38]

Posted earlier but good Steyn is always worth it.

[mrustow]

Mark Steyn: not just another pretty stylist.