Mark Steyn: The Yanks are going home

The Spectator (U.K.) ^ | 03/15/03 | Mark Steyn

[Gritty]

The death of Europe in its present form is a given.

Will a new Islamic Empire take it's place? It's got a good start!

Imagine what the (remaining) French will think when they start dynamiting Notre Dame and the Louvre!

[Freakazoid]

Bump for Brilliance!

[gcruse]

I continue to be amazed by this man's prose, wit, and insight.

And the volume of it.  This man produces  several columns a week of always-fresh
insight, flashy humor, and political wisdom.  I can't imagine the brainpower he draws on.

[colorado tanker]

Nothing to add. Steyn seems to nail every subject he tackles.

[reformed_democrat]

Thanks, Pokey.

[Billthedrill]

What Steyn doesn't add is that all the third world crazies WILL chose to go to Europe, because they're subzidized by the welfare state...

That bears repeating. What will happen is twofold - first, that to the EU will go the labor that that sort of society needs - low-paying, manual "dirtywork" labor that forms the lower strata of an increasingly class-based, aging welfare society. And second, that to the United States will go the young, highly-educated, risk-tolerant innovators who are looking for the rewards success brings there but not in Europe, and worse from the EU point of view, these won't just be from the third-world countries populating the EU but from the EU's best and brightest as well.

This is not the recipe for pulling even with the United States in terms of technology, culture, or economics. But it is an old pattern.

[jpl]

What Steyn doesn't add is that all the third world crazies WILL chose to go to Europe, because they're subzidized by the welfare state.....

The problem with that is that the old European welfare state is on the verge of total and utter collapse, probably within the next five to ten years or so (our American welfare state is in danger in some ways itself, but the situation is not nearly as dire here). What will take place in Old Europe once that happens is uncertain at this point, but I guarantee it won't be pretty. We're on the cusp of some very interesting, and possibly frighteningly violent, times ahead of us.

[Destructor]

"In 1898, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, prime minister of Queen Victoria’s great white north, declared that just ‘as the 19th century was the century of the United States, so shall the 20th century belong to Canada.’"

Part of their diabolical plan will include forcing Americans to eat Vinegar on their Freedom Fries, and drink Molson Gold!

[45Auto]

Most people are quite good and wish to do the right thing and live peaceful, prosperous lives. The problem arises because ther are always enough exceptions and some of them rise to positions of power. The idea that goodness will prevail simply because of the "greatness of institutions" is utterly myopic, wishful thinking, and in the extreme, suicidally insane. That there are politicians who are so stupid as to believe such nonsense is the best reason I know to stay well-armed.

[kitkat]

Thand you, Poke, for a great read.

BOOKMARKING IT!

[vollmond]

Part of their diabolical plan will include forcing Americans to eat Vinegar on their Freedom Fries, and drink Molson Gold!

Then they've already won.

[FreeCanuckistan]

I think you guy's should have called them 'Froggy Fries' instead of 'Freedom Fries'......more insulting to the Franc's.

[SuziQ]

So for Europe this is the perfect storm, with Jacques Chirac in the George Clooney role.

Heh, Heh. How appropriate, because we all know what happened to Clooney's character at the end.

[Britton J Wingfield]

If virtue automatically prevailed over brute force and aggression, we wouldn't need police or jails.

[CyberCowboy777]

bump!

[foreshadowed at waco]

So for Europe this is the perfect storm, with Jacques Chirac in the George Clooney role. Best case scenario: you wind up as Vienna with Swedish tax rates.

Chirac is certainly very much an over-reacher as was Clooney in the film.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

[A] European Union run on sclerotic Franco–German lines

What I like to call Vichy Germany.

[TaxMe]

Great article, as usual from Steyn. Europe thinks they have built the perfect model in which military might is no longer necessary. Europe overlooks the fact that it has had peace for the last 50 years solely because the United States footed the bill to protect it.

[speekinout]

(our American welfare state is in danger in some ways itself, but the situation is not nearly as dire here).

We have the ability to correct ourselves when the welfare state gets too overpowering. We did with the welfare reform bill, and it's likely that we will make more progress with SS and Medicare/Medicaid reforms soon.
America attracts people who want to become rich. And many of the people born here want the same thing. Welfare states don't offer that chance. There are a lot of Americans who want to take care of the needy, but not very many of them want to give up their chances of becoming wealthy.

[twntaipan]

The only ingrediant missing from this excellent essay is: Close the borders to Canada and Mexico. Anything less will simply allow Eurostatism to threaten us from these erstwhile neighbors.

For as long as people have called for sticter border controls the argument has been the cost is too high. But if we pull our troops home and stop propping up Europe, Japan and S.Korea's defenses we will have cash to spare, IMO.