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Europe
Western Europe's America Problem
2007-02-07
Via EU Referendum
Posted by:ed

#12  no mo uro, I think the Americans running things at the time wanted to keep Europe militarily dependent so they didn't start a third world war in another fifteen years. It worked, too. Think what the '68ers might have done had they had armies to play with instead of terror cells.

Methinks its Amer that has a Euro problem.
Would you be kind enough to expand on that, JosephM?
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-02-07 22:46  

#11  SPACEWAR> POLAND sez Iran missles a threat in 5-6 years. NEWSMAX > Chicom officio says NORTH KOREAN CRISIS MAY SPARK US-CHINA REGIONAL CONFLICT [WAR]. Methinks its Amer that has a Euro problem.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2007-02-07 22:01  

#10  Agree with you, RJS, about the analogy of the teenager. The Marshall Plan and NATO were what permitted the Euros to have their socialist utopia, not the Euros' superiority at planning and running a society vs American ideals. In the absence of either (MP or NATO), Europe could never have afforded the "free" health care and transportation and education and public funded art etc. - the amount that they would have had to spend of their own GDP to ward off the Soviets would have made it impossible. The American taxpayer funded their little "utopia", on some level they know this, and they will always resent the truth of it.

I wonder if the "powers that be" in the U.S. the late '40's and early '50's actually felt that by funding Eurosocialism with NATO dollars that they would be emasculating and permanently weakening the Europeans, as well as sending them on a demographic downspin, thereby eliminating a future rival for American power. Don't know how you would prove it, but if it were true, a stroke of strategic genius in an era before the rise of Islamic fundamentalism (which of course changes the equation mightily).

Agree with you, Jules, that the strutting, preening, full-of-itself-but-without-claws bantam rooster that is modern Europe is doomed.

Unfortunately, we cannot afford to allow France's nukes to fall into Islam's hands.

I believe that ultimately we will have to colonize Europe to save it from what is now unavoidable demographic collapse and Islamic incursion.

Posted by: no mo uro   2007-02-07 20:07  

#9  Thanks, tw.
Posted by: Jules   2007-02-07 19:10  

#8  Brava! Well written, Jules.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-02-07 19:03  

#7  "For the time being, there seem to be no visible incentives for Europeans to desist from anti-Americanism."

For the time being. There also seems to be, for the time being, no inclination on the part of Europeans to re-learn that humans sometimes have to use armies and military weapons to survive. Someone else, Mom and Pop America, has been their "back" and continue to be their back, so Europeans have become lazy, soft and petulant about America. For the time being.

Islam grows and grows within Europe while Europeans bow and scrape to beg forgiveness of their growing cadre of guests, who assert themselves in the definition of European countries more and more. Terrorist acts in the name of Islam continue to strike every country in the world that is not America and still Europeans avoid physically resisting, or arming themselves, or even equipping themselves with a philosophy that sees a need for military preparedness to defend their world. Anti-Americanism and blame for perceived US policy flaws grow as the Union of Europe solidifies a new position for itself on the world's stage-a strutting, spineless, gun-less Gargantuan bereft of moral compass or natural principles, while American presidents of every stripe come and go, and other world powers gain power on the world stage, indifferent to Europe's opinion or the condition of other people in other nations, and much more singleminded about attaining absolute power in the world.

Then, one day America no longer sees the value of covering Europe's back and decides not to anymore. It has to draw all its energies in towards protecting itself. Europe's anti-Americanism proves to have disemboweled its own societies. There is no wishfulness or remorse, no snide anti-American view which can shield them against jihadist movements gaining majority political status within their nations and reestablishing European countries as parts of Dar al Islam. Islam takes over, unchallenged.

All the sophistication and culture in the world can't make that goulash taste good. But enjoy your self-satisfaction-for the time being.
Posted by: Jules   2007-02-07 18:48  

#6  Teens often hate their parents because they are financial supported and thus have to listen. Since WW2 the US has taken over the bulk of European defense leaving the Europeans in much the same psychological position.

I've long felt that the US should have pulled the bulk of our forces out of Europe, planned for the End of Nato, and left the Europeans to stand up on their own. They would have bitched and moaned but the European nation(s) would have returned to Great Power status faster.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2007-02-07 11:49  

#5  Sgt. Mom:

Television and the MSM are their only windows, until as you say, they actually come here. Should anyone be surprised at their being misinformed?
Posted by: Besoeker   2007-02-07 08:02  

#4  I ran into that also, TW... I think in part it may because the "America" that they spend so much time ostentatiously disliking is really more of an artificial construct and caraciture, put together from snippits of movies, and tabloids, leftover Soviet-era disinformation... and projection. It actually bears very little resemblance to the "America-that-is".
It is sometimes very amusing when Europeans, or South Americans actually encounter "America-that-is" and realise that everything they thought they knew, everything they had been told about the "America-as-construct" was actually a very bizarre fun-house hall of mirrors.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom   2007-02-07 08:00  

#3  Unfortunately for those many who have business dealings with the rest of the world, this hatred of America has actual dollar costs. It is interesting though, how many of those who do interact with Americans end up saying, "... but not you. One would hardly know you were American, except for the accent." I used to hear that a lot when we lived over there (except about the accent, because somehow I ended up with the same accent as the person I was talking with at the time).
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-02-07 06:54  

#2  The Europeans are free to hate us, but they must remember they can't even defend themselves let alone protect their own vital interests such as energy and raw material, almost 100% imported.

Why and teh hell do most of teh people in this country feel we need to be "liked" by those in other countries? It not something we need really. I don't want frends Like the German and French> As far as I am concernd the BBC deserves a cruise missle or four. It's better we are feared. Perhaps then these fopish Europeans will mamage to pull their own weight internationally and in defense matters.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom   2007-02-07 05:40  

#1  OTOH, HIRSI ALI on FOX > Islam espec Radical Islam is wholly and absolutely incompatible wid democracy or personal-civil rights, espec for women. ALI [paraphrased]> MOST [but not all] Muslim women pragmatically/realistically don't own = have any rights over their own bodies or even their own minds, or much of anything. Becuz Islam is "from God", Ali believes the West would be foolish = recklessly endangering itself to believe that Islam will [long] tolerate parity or peaceful co-existence wid Non-Islam. ISLAM = RADICAL ISLAM WANT SURRENDER = CONCESSION, NOT CO-EXISTENCE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2007-02-07 00:59  

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