Mark Steyn: War between America and Europe

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 12/27/2001 | Mark Steyn

[BenF]

making a real contribution to technology.

And some of them fly planes into buildings while their buddies on the ground celebrate. The Nazis were great technicians as well.

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

Given the history of the Jews in the 20th century, if I were a Jew and somebody told me I was the "apple of God's eye", I would want to poke God's eye out with a red, hot poker....

[Torie]

Americans are resigned to Britain’’s and Europe’’s need to ‘‘damn’’ Israel ...

My northern, rural, conservative neighbours are, when you prod ’’em a little, mildly xenophobic and share a reflexive distaste for overt Jewishness. But they’’ll always back Israel over Syria or Egypt because to them liberty trumps everything else

As usual, a provocative and brilliantly written piece by Mr. Steyn, but not the most tightly reasoned. There is a certain tension between the two comments above, and I don't think Steyn made his case that the prevailing sentiment in Europe among the chattering classes and elites is to damn Israel.

Steyn has taken a couple of incidents, and extropolated too far, and without enough infrastructure, to be really persuasive.

[Quix]

HMMMM, if this is all that true about London's movers and shakers, I wonder if one result will be that the meteor or quake or bomb or whatever will be striking London sooner than some of us thought.

[Brian Allen]

Me too, please?

[Oschisms]

Perhaps. (But why'd ya hafta send me running to the dictionary to remember the difference between ie and eg? I hate it when that happens.)

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

"...The fact is that people get the government they deserve..."

That is the ugliest piece of abuse that has ever been hurled on this forum.

[Libertarian_4_eva]

As we’ve seen yet again, the principle underpinning the new Europe is not ‘We, the people’ but ‘We know better than the people’

One of the best quotes about the E.U. I have ever seen.

[randog]

Can anyone remember the last time these sheet-heads won a war?

Yeah, when Kuwait and Saudi won the Gulf War....again, using the imported skilled labor of western nations.

[Brian Allen]

God didn't do anything to the Jews.

Death-worshipping, pagan-heathen Europeans did. Followers of the prophet Hitler.

And death and destruction worshipping, blasphemous followers of Derr Fuerher, Mohammed.

And God, having given us the FReedom of choice that sets [Some of] us apart from the animals, loves us far to much to interfere with the excercise of our will!

Shalom! Shalom!

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

"...Yeah, when Kuwait and Saudi won the Gulf War....again, using the imported skilled labor of western nations..."

Yes. Fascinating, isn't it, how The Last Remaining Super Power On Earth has become the modern day Mamaluk. Makes a star-spangled girl proud.....

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Thanks for the post - this editorial is right on the money. Were it not for the fighter in GW Bush and many broken glass Republicans and all those who took to the streets last year, the Clinton/Gore Europhile Socialist Communistas would have America moved more closely to the "European" welfare model than we are now. Don't we understand now the rage at GW Bush and his election from those dwelling in socialized Europe? Can't we see clearly the demarcation lines being drawn as prophecied in Ezekiel, Daniel, Revelation and other places in Biblical "prophecy" scriptures? The hatred for Israel and the European welfare state mentality that has bred many of the "terrorists" go hand in hand because these mindsets have the same source: hell.

It is not Israel that is the root of all trouble in the world. It is the HATRED of Israel, the non-rational, demonic determination to destroy Israel and God's chosen people the Jews that is the root of all the trouble. And it is the HATERS of Israel who will bring this world into its final cataclysm, just as foretold long ago. The time of Jacob's trouble appears to be almost upon us. America must stand with Israel or experience the same fate as those who would damn her to hell.

Sorry for the prophetic lingo here.....but Europe is hellbound and I, for one, am very glad that as of right now, America is standing separate and apart from that socialist cesspool.

[Pokey78]

Done & done.

[veronica]

Given the history of the Jews in the 20th century, if I were a Jew and somebody told me I was the "apple of God's eye", I would want to poke God's eye out with a red, hot poker....

Why? Check how many Jews have won Pulizers, Nobel Prizes, how many diseases Jews have cured - how many of the great American Broadway classics were written by Jews, how many pop favorites were written by Jews...and according to the wingnuts Jews run Hollywood and the media, and on and on. Jews had a Hell of a run in the 20th century. And will continue to do so.

I believe God's gift to man is free will. What man does with that free will separates him from the things that crawl on the belly.

If you are referring to the Holocaust, those who committed it are the things that crawl on the belly. It is they God curses. And their modern-day enablers as well.

[veronica]

Lol. Fred25, is that you? Snuck in again, did you? How's The Brethren doin'?

Where, where, where?!! (-;

[JusPasenThru]

Great post! Some silly comments, but whatever. Would you place me on the ping list? Thanks.

[TaxMe]

Good point. People do get the government they deserve. Wasn't it Aristotle who observed that slaves deserved their fate since they took no action [collectively] to end it.

[veronica]

Steyn is a brilliant fellow. He wrote some of the best pieces during the election cycle. I agree with this article. And it is with immense pride that I note he so correctly points up that the country I love - the USA - arguably the greatest nation ever created - is the eternal ally of Israel.

And that GWB - who got a small portion of Jewish votes (though that will change) nevertheless has made it his business to be pro-Israel. I read a term the other day 'philo-Christianity', which the writer thought was behind Bush's pov. Must look that up.

[NewAmsterdam]

I appreciate you taking a more considered interest in current affairs then most on this site. Yet, the arguments you put forward have been in circulation (mostly in Europe itself, of course) for at least ten years. There is something deeper happening. There are various strains of European development: Eurocrats of the left and right-wing type all enjoying their power; somewhat more principled socialists who would like to see a 'social Europe' including state-sponsored bottle-banks to save the environment; businessmen who have seen and still see their companies grow on the back of the single market to world dominance; conservatives who dislike the EU but are in favor of a European market in the loose sense of the word; the European parliament sending the Commission home because of fraud, due to a Dutch whistle-blower I am happy to report; the bourses of Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam merging into one bourse which has just bought Liffe, the futures exchange in London. Get me right: I do not like the EU. But again, to portray it in simple terms as a battle between socialism and capitalism is lunacy. It misses the point entirely.

There is no such thing as 'European unemployment'. Dutch unemployment stands at 2%, the lowest in the Western world. Believe it or not, it happens to be the truth. Droning on about flexible labor markets is fine, but it will not happen. An Irishman will not go looking for a job in Italy at the age of 50. It is just not going to happen. Would you move to MExico to find a job if you lost yours at the age of 50? Maybe you would, but you would be one of the few.

The idea that somehow England is not a welfare-state and a shining exception to the European rule is such a fallacy, I do not know where to begin. If I get the sack today, I will be able to live in my flat in the most expensive area of town, paid for by the government. This would never happen in Holland. Just an example, but it may show you that things are a little more complicated than often portrayed.