Mark Steyn: U.S. can sit back and watch Europe implode

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | February 27, 2005 | Mark Steyn

[Puzzleman]

A week ago, the conventional wisdom was that George W. Bush had seen the error of his unilateral cowboy ways and was setting off to Europe to mend fences with America's ''allies.''

I think not. Lester Pearson, the late Canadian prime minister, used to say that diplomacy is the art of letting the other fellow have your way. All week long President Bush offered a hilariously parodic reductio of Pearson's bon mot, wandering from one European Union gabfest to another insisting how much he loves his good buddy Jacques and his good buddy Gerhard and how Europe and America share -- what's the standard formulation? -- ''common values.'' Care to pin down an actual specific value or two that we share? Well, you know, ''freedom,'' that sort of thing, abstract nouns mostly. Love to list a few more common values, but gotta run.

[kdot]

Sadly, so are we. Our schools dilute American culture with multiculturalism. The left assaults us as racist if we embrace our own culture. Our left has aligned with the Euro-Left and against bread-and-butter Americans. Hillary, for her own personal aspirations, will try to blur the line between red and blue but nobody wins with purple.

[incubus]

During WWI and WWII we fought because Europe was worth saving and we had many religious, cultural, political attachments to our "cousins" across the pond. This time there will be no such ties and Europe will be left on it's own. Sad for them.

[ken21]

good read, thanks!

oui, oui, europe is dying.

[Savage Beast]

Yes, and the squabbling, like the unwieldy "constitution", is a symptom of a decadence that has infected Europe like a plague.

[Vigilanteman]

The UK has finally seen the light about the need to select immigrants rather than have them select you. It is high time the U.S. follows suit-- we have far too many fifth columnists taking advantage of our nation's traditional hospitality toward immigrants.

I'd take our immigrant policy a step further and offer illegal Mexicans who show no inclination toward Americanization an amnesty consisting for free passage to the EU mainland. It would be a three-way win:

1. For the EU, because Mexicans share a common language and culture with at least one member country. Further Americanization is neither expected nor desired and, finally, because they are far more desireable immigrants than Muzzies.
   
2. For the Mexicans, the same reasons mentioned above plus a far more generous program of socialism for those desiring to milk the system.
   
3. For Americans, a partial solution to a thorny political issue and the right to decide which immigrants we accept rather than the obligation to deal with those who choose to crash our borders.

An added bonus is a possible revitalization of Christianity in Europe.

[Gritty]

BTTT

[Berosus]

In the early eighth century, the Moors overran Spain and Portugal, and invaded France.

The Turks invaded central Europe several times in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but were stopped at the gates of Vienna.

It constantly amazes me that whereas the best armies of Islam failed to conquer/convert Europe, unarmed poor to middle-class immigrants may be succeeding.

[Savage Beast]

Yes, the American Left is infected with the same decadence that threatens to destroy Europe.

Thank God for the American Heartland--Bush Country--healthy, strong, spiritually and morally alive, still ascendant, vibrant, energetic, optimistic, and the greatest bastion of Western Civilization in the world today.

Americans showed the world their strength and continuous ascendancy on November 2, 2004. Thank God they had the wisdom and courage to repudiate the (sick) Left!

If Europe would follow the example of the American Heartland, together we would lead the world into a bright, beautiful, just, and universally prosperous future. However, Europeans continue to dispise the very things and the very leaders who would save them and who would give them exactly what they want.

[fenway]

"The Euro-bigwigs shuffled their feet and stared coldly into their mistresses' decolletage."

I'm not sure what 'decolletage' is, but I think that I would like it.....fenway

[palmer]

The left assaults us as racist if we embrace our own culture

I've noticed that around here from time to time. At best the neocons are ignoring the culture war, at worst, they are on the other side.

[finnigan2]

"It said that paganism in Germany had success because the huge death tolls of WWI had shaken people's faith in Christianity."

- Maybe, but the Plague claimed about half the population in the middle ages and if anything the people become more devout, not less.
I'm afraid that there are other, more complex reasons, at the heart of Europe's spiritual exhaustion.
Who knows; maybe a terrorist planted nuclear bomb in the center of a major city will be enough to create a renaissance in Christian faith. As they say, there are no atheists in a foxhole.
We shall see.

[andyandval]

You are a vulgar idiot. Hope you find Free Republic utterly depressing. Bye Bye

[squirt-gun]

Re #45....

Mexicans are not assimilating into American culture.

They refuse, for the most part, to learn English or have their children learn English. As a result, we must answer the question everywhere: "English or Spanish?"

Since 1776, no other group of immigrants, legal or otherwise, demanded this privilege of being a country within a country.

[libs_kma]

This guy is good! Getting to read him all the time would almost be worth the price of our local, lefty rag, the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Sadly we don't have any comparable writers here, which is why I gave the paper the boot.

Thanks to FR I get to read Mark Steyn, and I can ignore my local rag.

[Dane]

I've noticed that around here from time to time. At best the neocons are ignoring the culture war, at worst, they are on the other side

Really? Neo-con #1, I'm surmising by you, President Bush, has signed a partial birth abortion ban and endorsed a constitutional amendment against homosexual marriage.

Not exactly surrendering the culture war, but what the hey you got take your pokes anyway you can at Christian immigrants you don't like.

[Steel Wolf]

Europe was there 1000 years before the United States and will be there 1000 years after the United States.

Physically, it'll be there. But the Europeans will be minorities in their own countries. In another 50 years 'Europe' will be replaced by 'Eurabia', and what's left of Western civilization will be living on dhimmi reservations.

Another famous American, Chief Seattle, had this to say on the passing of his people:

A few more moons, a few more winters, and not one of the descendants of the mighty hosts that once moved over this broad land or lived in happy homes, protected by the Great Spirit, will remain to mourn over the graves of a people once more powerful and hopeful than yours. But why should I mourn at the untimely fate of my people? Tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless. Your time of decay may be distant, but it will surely come, for even the White Man whose God walked and talked with him as friend to friend, cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all. We will see.

Reflect on this, Europe, as your people sink beneath the waves.

[Dane]

They refuse, for the most part, to learn English or have their children learn English. As a result, we must answer the question everywhere: "English or Spanish?"

Huh, then how come English is now the world's language. Second and third genereation immigrants are fluent in it. To thrive in America one must know English, despite the age old warnings of earlier generations, those Italians aren't learning English, etc.etc.

[andyandval]

bogaboga777 is dead and buried.

[Thoro]

Steyn is correct, Europe is dying. When the Muslims finally overwhelm them, it will be too late. The first thing to go will be Europe's "decadent" music, art, and literature--and these will be replaced by their Islamic counterparts.

Nothing?