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Impotent condescension Europeans look down their noses at the U.S.'s "hyper-power" status
World on the Web ^ | march 30,2002 | Gene Edward Veith

Posted on 3/27/2002, 12:07:30 PM by rebeliam

America at the beginning of the 21st century is already not so much a superpower as a behemoth on the world stage," observed an editorial in the London Observer. "Economically dominant, it enjoys military and cultural power unrivaled since the days of the Roman emperors."

European pundits are running out of words to express their awe at the United States. The term superpower hardly does justice to American might. The United States now is a "mega-power." Or, better yet, as the Observer puts it, a "hyper-power."

The liberal-leaning British newspaper pointed out that a single U.S. carrier group—an aircraft carrier and its escort ships—packs more planes, marines, and firepower than most European nations. And America has seven of them. And that's just the Navy. And no other nation has anything remotely close to the military technology of the United States.

Afghanistan was the Soviet Union's Vietnam, but the United States quickly dispatched the Taliban like hitting a bug with a hammer. Though Europe—especially England—has been supportive of America's war against terrorism, the European mind is finding the display of American might deeply unsettling.

This lies behind some of the fretting about President Bush's "axis of evil" speech, the treatment of the terrorist captives in Guantanamo, and American threats to turn its hammer against Saddam Hussein.

Europeans feel that they are far more sophisticated and culturally superior to the more primitive Americans, with their gun-slinging ways just out of the Wild West. They are also dismayed to find themselves irrelevant.

The Observer quotes with a straight face a British academic, David Rieff, who said of the United States, "They're not doing the intelligent thing, which would be to forge multilateral institutions that are favorable to us."

Mixed in with this impotent condescension is fear. Mr. Rieff goes on to worry, "Even for someone who's not against the use of American power, it's hard to believe that the people running the country can limit their ambitions for an empire at its high-water mark."

The Europeans seem to be projecting their own history onto the United States. True, nations that have been invaded, attacked, and had their cities destroyed throughout their history—and have been plagued with terrorism of one kind or another for generations—could be excused for thinking the United States is overreacting to the events of Sept. 11. But that sort of thing has never happened to us before, and they should realize that we do not take it lightly.

Those worried about American power can take heart in knowing that unlike European nations, the United States is not interested in conquering its neighbors and setting up a global empire. Just about every European nation took its turn in trying to dominate the world—Italy's Rome, the Spanish conquistadors, Napoleonic France, the British Empire, the three Reichs of Germany. The United States, however powerful, has mostly kept to itself.

The wreckage left behind by European colonialism is actually to blame for much of the instability in the world. The genocidal civil wars of Africa are largely due to the European-drawn colonial borders, which remained after independence and placed tribes that hate each other in the same country. The Hindu-Muslim powderkeg of Kashmir, the Byzantine politics of the Middle East, the dangerous regimes of Indonesia and Indochina, even the belligerence of China, all have colonial European connections.

One reason Europe is nervous about U.S. action against Islamic terrorists is that they have so many Muslim immigrants—former citizens of their far-flung empires who have taken advantage of their right to move to the seat of the empire. Today, Europe is home to 15 million Muslims, and Islam has surpassed Judaism as the second largest European religion. As for the largest, Christianity, the churches are mostly empty.

This may be the real secret of Europe's cultural decline. In response to the way President Bush speaks in terms of clear moral categories, a German writer said, "You know, the concept of 'good and evil' no longer exists in Europe."

Europeans are much further gone down the path of secularism and moral relativism than Americans (who have gone quite a way down that path themselves). Prostitution is generally legal and pornography is on free-TV. European universities remain bastions of an almost Maoist leftism. In Scandinavia, couples living together outnumber those who marry. The Dutch have legalized both drugs and the killing of their sick.

As Europe tries to dismantle their own national identities into a bureaucratic European Union, they are alarmed at American patriotism. As they destroy their own rich cultures, they are envious of one that still shows signs of life.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: europeans; ushyperpower
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1 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:07:30 PM by rebeliam
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To: rebeliam
I like the title. "Impotent" is a word that I think of often when I think of the European left (who apparently run everything over there.)
2 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:17:12 PM by wimpycat
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To: rebeliam
Bump. What else to say?
3 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:17:26 PM by conservatism_IS_compassion
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To: rebeliam
They destroyed that culture on the killing fields of Verdun and the Somme. What has come since is but a childish parody of Europe. We are more European than they are. These creatures are not same people that created Beethoven or Yeats or Da Vinci. They have denied a past that they barely undersand. We are the heirs of that great civilization.
4 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:18:55 PM by CasearianDaoist
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To: rebeliam
Whining and complaining all the while knowing that we will always be there to bail them out.
5 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:21:49 PM by OldFriend
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To: rebeliam
Europeans feel that they are far more sophisticated and culturally superior to the more primitive Americans

They feel that way? Fine. I know that my patriotism is not primitive. These Euroweenies had better NEVER ask us for help fighting off any enemy.

6 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:22:09 PM by gcraig
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To: rebeliam
They're not doing the intelligent thing, which would be to forge multilateral institutions that are favorable to us." WTF is a "mulitlateral institution"? sounds like a clintonista term for "here's your money, do you like me yet?"
7 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:23:50 PM by tm61
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To: rebeliam
I just love this quote:

The Observer quotes with a straight face a British academic, David Rieff, who said of the United States, "They're not doing the intelligent thing, which would be to forge multilateral institutions that are favorable to us."

In other words--"Pay attention to us!!!"

8 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:24:33 PM by ShadowAce
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: rebeliam
European's don't have to give up their free porn, prostitution, open marriages or marijuana to recognize that evil exists. Evil is simply acting out of malice, and at some level in the al-Qaeda and axis leadership, they probably know that they are truly evil. If we repeat it and explain it often enough, like we did with the Soviet Union, they can't deny it and the world can't deny it.
10 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:38:18 PM by elfman2
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To: rebeliam
"Tis a gift to have the power of a giant, but it is a tyrant who would wield that power largely." - That line/parphrase from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure sticks with me. Woe be unto our enemies who awaken an angry American hornets nest. In fact, our national symbol should be changed from a bald eagle to a sleeping rhinosceros with a titanium tipped horn, wings and hornets that shoot out of one nostril, flames the other, lasers out of it's eyeballs, and armored treads on it's feet which stomp and grind everything in it's path into a fine dust. Oh, and dollar bills that shoot out it's @$$ so that the surviving population of our former enemies can rebuild and become our allies.

The trick then, is in taming the beast once it's awakened and keep it from turning on it's master We The People. The technology is now in place to turn this nation into an Orwellian nightmare. We really are at the mercy of the moral character of our military's leadership.

The civilian population is almost completely effeminized and almost terminally complacent. For all the bluster of a few real patriots, there is really nothing stopping a 7 Days in May scenario except that the brass and a large contingent of those who serve are of honorable character - character forged by a society which still glows with the vestigal light of a Belief in Liberty and a Faith in God, this despite the best efforts of our public schools to stamp out these ideals.

It may be Morning in America again, after the nightmare of the Clinton years, but to avoid going into that dark night will require us to rage against the usurpation of our liberties even as we keep vigil against terrorism.

Now is the time to show the world why we are indeed worthy to bear the mantle of Atlas.

11 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:41:12 PM by Wm Bach
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To: rebeliam
"The wreckage left behind by European colonialism is actually to blame for much of the instability in the world."
SOOO True!
12 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:47:55 PM by gilor
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To: rebeliam
Europeans feel that they are far more sophisticated and culturally superior to the more primitive Americans, with their gun-slinging ways just out of the Wild West. They are also dismayed to find themselves irrelevant.

LOL! Okay, bring your military toys and your soldiers along and we will let you play, too.

13 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:49:59 PM by Blood of Tyrants
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To: CasearianDaoist
Only the elite and the wretches stayed in Europe during the great emmigration that lasted from the 1880's to the early 1950's. Anyone with a grain of sense left.
14 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:53:01 PM by Blood of Tyrants
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To: Blood of Tyrants
Or died.
15 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:55:01 PM by CasearianDaoist
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To: Pokey78
Ping! The MSPL might be interested in this one. It's comparable to his efforts.
16 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:55:39 PM by FreedomPoster
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To: rebeliam
an aircraft carrier and its escort ships—packs more planes, marines, and firepower than most European nations. And America has *** seven *** of them.

Our "You're a Peon" friends should learn how to count. I believe the number is more like 10 or 11 CVBG's.

17 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:55:43 PM by austinite
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To: rebeliam
Word of advice from an American: "Leave us alone and we won't piss in your coffee."

Pass it on.
18 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:56:18 PM by Maelstrom
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To: austinite
It is 12. It should be 20!
19 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:57:02 PM by CasearianDaoist
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To: rebeliam
They are also dismayed to find themselves irrelevant

Bingo! Europe now is the product of 50 years of socialism.

Moral relativism translates to societal decline....

Mike

20 posted on 3/27/2002, 12:58:26 PM by MichaelP
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