Posted on 11/10/2005 4:56:55 AM PST by Tolik
In Paris last week, the smoke of riot and fire arose from a West Bank-style intifada of angry Muslim youths. The ports of Spain were shut down by a fishermen's blockade. Hostage ships were freed only after the irate blockaders won more government fuel subsidies.
While traveling the last three weeks from Turkey to Portugal, I was reminded again how different Europe has become from what some Americans idealize as a nirvana of benevolent socialism, universal and free medical care, and sophisticated high culture
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(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Let me know if you want in or out.
Links: FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
His website: http://victorhanson.com/ NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
It's hard to admit you've been living in a fool's paradise, especially when blaming the US for everything unpleasant has worked for so long.
"Few over here realize that they have finally lost American good will . . . "
Yep. I, for one, have had it with a lot of Europeans. Perhaps it is time for this country to concentrate on taking care of US, and let them take care of their own problems.
ping
Excellent read. Hanson nails it.
Right on the money!
The Codfish lays a thousand eggs,
The humble Hen, but one.
The Codfish doesn't cackle around,
To tell you what she's done.
We dreadfully scorn the Codfish,
While the humble Hen we prize.
All of which goes to show
It pays to advertise.
-- Ogden Nash
If it doesn't work how many more American lives will be lost on European soil after they beg us for help again?
None, hopefully...
That's a problem for many doers: they fail to advertise. Unfortunately it is a must in the world we live.
Amount of information doubles every ten years or so (sometimes feels even faster). So we have oceans of information comparing with our ancestors of just 100 years ago. We benefited from the progress, of course, but this side of the progress complicates our lives immensely. We have too much of the garbage info coming through. It is much easier not to notice a quiet doer now than it used to be.
And not to forget, most of the garbage info is very nicely packaged and is good eye candy.
They will soon be rousing from their sweet dreams into a wide-awake nightmare.
It is time to stop propping up some of these dysfunctional countries and let nature take it's course of destruction and renewal. We should begin to shift our allegiance to countries that share our vision.
the new childless European citizen is otherwise too engaged in travel, fine food, global moralizing and intellectual pursuit.
I think VDH mentions something most of us forget. In contrast to most here, I don't see the attitudes of Europeans as living in despair, but rather, complacent and self-indulgent. Just read some of the Eurocrat posteurs on this site (Yes they do exist here, but they rarely respond to VDH's threads) and you will see this side.
In the 21st century, Europe is fast on the way to becoming what it was in the early Middle Ages-a collection of petty nation-states half-run by Muslims while the real power is in the East.
btt
"If it doesn't work how many more American lives will be lost on European soil after they beg us for help again?"
- I give most of Western Europe 5 years and France...3.
I personally do not believe that Europe will seek or accept American deliverance again. They are so steeped in their defensive arrogance and so conditioned by their fears of having to confront their inadequacy as a community.
Rather, I expect the trash in charge to stumble into some kind of lame compromise position, fighting a sporadic rearguard action with the advancing islamist domination, and resulting in a long, dwindling, episodically violent, and economically emasculated twilight of European culture.
I do not expect there will be a decisive battle in Europe, as there will be in the Middle East with Israel and her enemies. The euros will submit, not with a bang but a whimper. We have seen the future, the last two weeks.
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