Europeans Are Not Cowards. It's That We Know War.

The International Herald Tribune ^ | January 28, 2004 | Fletcher Crossman

[quidnunc]

Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina – Listening to Richard Perle on the radio recently was a little hard for a European like me. Perle, a former chairman of the Defense Policy Board, stated that European nations "do not have the most courageous of instincts," with the implication that America has to intervene in international affairs because Europeans are afraid to. Perle's comments take place against a chorus of similar sentiments to be heard on America's airwaves in recent months.

An average listener would be forgiven for believing that Europeans are a cowardly bunch of ungrateful wimps, whose anti-American bombast is a merely a cover for their complicity with evil regimes.

It may be true. But as a European myself — I'm from Britain — it doesn't feel true. And I wonder if our cultural disconnect comes from two very different experiences of war.

-snip-

[Alberta's Child]

The writer neglected to write about the part where the Europeans acquiesced to Hitler as he was building his war machine and taking the first steps toward WWII.

Just as you neglected to point out that much of Europe's support of Hitler in the 1930s was based on a very rational understanding that Germany historically served as a strong buffer between Western Europe and the barbaric tribes that lived to the east, and therefore supporting Hitler was the most effective means of protecting Western Europe from the growing Communist threat in the Soviet Union.

[Billthedrill]

The author is a journalist, not a military person, or he might know better. It is the United States, not Europe, who has most recently been scarred by a major conflict, and Vietnam is still very fresh in the minds of my generation of citizens. We were long ago disabused of any naive notions of war, and long ago informed at tedious length of the European experience in turning their beautiful countrysides into charnel houses.

Nor have we forgotten Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and if some Europeans have it is understandable but not forgivable. It is they, and not we, who have presented the world with the central moral dilemma of our time: how much can one ignore in the interest of not dirtying one's hands, and at what point do scruples and a preference for the niceties of international order become the handcuffs that allow cowards to oppress the weak unhindered? These are not academic questions.

For the author to presume to speak for a country, his own, Great Britain, who has certainly learned these lessons well, and had the courage to defy the stormwinds of European criticism to stand by us, is simply sad. To those British friends reading this I apologize for him - if he doesn't know any better, we do.

[VaBthang4]

If I may, what kind of US Military Service did you provide?

[LibWhacker]

Fine, Fletcher . . . Do you promise not to call on us next time you appease your way into war? If not, sit down and STFU!

[VOA]

Europeans Are Not Cowards. It's That We Know War.

Europeans Are Not Cowards. BUT We're Smart Enough To Get The Americans To Expend Their
Capital Fixing Our Problems In Our Own Backyard...Like In The Former Yugoslavia...

...but We were only able to pull that one off because Bill Clinton and his
Democratic Soul-Mates ARE Old Europe.

[marron]

The thing with Europeans in the Second World War is that they didn't oppose Hitler in part because they were in agreement.

Anti-communists sometimes sided with him because they were more afraid of Stalin, but his anti-Semitic rhetoric didn't cause much heartburn anywhere in Europe. The Jews who burned in the camps died at German hands, but were rounded up and handed over by French police, Belgian police, Hungarian and Romanian police, and so on.

Palestine was very much in vogue among the camp survivors because there was no home to go back to, having been turned in by their neighbors.

So the writer might better have said that Europeans are not Cowards, its just that They are Fascists, and have a soft spot for dictators in snappy clothes.

[Mr. Mojo]

and at what point do scruples and a preference for the niceties of international order become the handcuffs that allow cowards to oppress the weak unhindered?

Nice job.

[marron]

". It is they, and not we, who have presented the world with the central moral dilemma of our time: how much can one ignore in the interest of not dirtying one's hands, and at what point do scruples and a preference for the niceties of international order become the handcuffs that allow cowards to oppress the weak unhindered? These are not academic questions."

Well said.

[mr.pink]

You beat me to it.I'll go one step further, too -- I think the odds are pretty good that nobody who is closer to Perle than a fourth cousin has ever served in the U.S. military, either.

Why Bush hasn't smacked that troublemaking pr_ck down but good amazes me. He is a disgraceful man who has no loyalty to him.

I'm glad that the Europeans aren't buying any of Perle's (and neo con band of blowhards) BS, and even happier that his ideology is laughed at by our trans Atlantic friends.

[noutopia]

I can say that I was treated well in England in the 90s. Like trash in Germany in the 70s and even worse in Iceland in 84. Brits are our friends,and most love Americans.USAF IN Europe Was USAFE,don't now the acronym now.

[Alberta's Child]

None. I turned down the opportunity to attend one of the U.S. military academies when it became clear to me that I had no interest in putting my fate in the hands of people like Richard Perle.

Which is also why you'll never hear me question another nation's courage when it comes to fighting wars on our side.

[fishbabe]

then lets pull all our guys and money out of europe and see how well they do on their own....correct me if i'm wrong, but we had to bail those idiots out of world war 2......they went along with hitler and killing jews for sport!!!!!!

[jpsb]

you might have a point there, the French Foreign legion has a very good reputation as a fighting force. Not a very large force but one with real teeth. At least it used to, don't even know if it exists anymore.

[11B3]

You and those transatlantic "friends" would like nothing better than to see this nation controlled by the UN and foreign bureaucrats.

Judging by both of your replies on this thread, you're fifth column for sure.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

No Brit that I know would call himself a European. The English were, and those that are still English are still probably stoic. Hitler tried his very best to make them cave and it didn't work. To say nothing of the Romans and the Normans,Maude and Stephen. SO H0W have the English turned into such pussies?

We didn't start wars in Europe, we just ended them. We fought and died for what? For the world to get back to normal. Freedom! We not only fought on European soil to end the lunacy, we had to fight the war in the Pacific at the same time. What weak-kneed sisters we are! We simply fail to empathize with the Euro weenies for all their past war suffering, which I might add goes back many centuries and has nothing to do with Americans or America.

The only wars fought on American soil were the War for Independence, the Civil war, the Indian wars, the French Canadian Wars, and now the war with terrorists of all Nations. I've even glossed over a few that few refer to any more, the war with Mexico, Spanish American, with Cuba, and the war of 1812 fought to put an ! mark at the end of War of Independence. I have still left out a few skirmishes. Americans lost all, died, suffered, starved and still prevailed during our short history. Oh, yes, and in the beginning we were mostly from Europe, Ireland, England and the far East, in the beginning, you experienced war weary smart guys taught us who, how and why to fight.

So, Mr. European, take a long walk off a short pier. Suck it up. Get a grip. You "europeans" over there may want to lie down with the dogs believing you can get up without fleas, but we do not want to join you in your mass extinction mode. We prefer to stick around and fight. We intend to prevail. Listen up! You have just witnessed the the epic remodeling of the middle east into democratic states that will, in time, join the the 21st Century. Forget the bridge! It is happening NOW.

[gobucks]

Wish I had made the same point .... it's obvious now.

[Keith]

well said...Bush could have used you in the SOTU...

[Alberta's Child]

I've got a great little story for you.

A friend of mine was in Germany last year, and in one of the cities where he traveled there was a huge anti-war demonstration in some kind of major public square. This guy could read most of the signs in German, and they all contained some variation of an anti-war message. A lot of them also had all kinds of familiar portraits on them with anti-American slogans written alongside them.

What he found most intriguing was that there wasn't a single photo of George W. Bush in them -- they were all photos of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, and Paul Wolfowitz.

LOL!!

[mr.pink]

Judging by both of your replies on this thread, you're fifth column for sure.

IMO....it's the Perle-istas who are the fifth column.

[jpsb]

No, we might need them there again. A Europe without US forces on the ground in strengh scares the hell out of me.