A GERMAN EDITORIAL

A German editorial worth reading:

  If any of you still feel that this war on terror is
> a mistake, here is an
> opinion from an unexpected source. It's fascinating
> that this should come
> out of Europe. Mathias Dapfner, Chief Executive of
> the huge German publisher
> Axel Springer AG, has written a blistering attack in
> DIE WELT, Germany's
> largest daily paper, against the timid reaction of
> Europe in the face of the
> Islamic threat.
>
> This is a must-read by all Americans. History may
> well certify its
> correctness.
> EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE
>
> 
> (Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer,
> AG)
> 
> A few days ago Henry Broder wrote in Welt am
> Sonntag, "Europe - your family
> name is appeasement." It's a phrase you can't get
> out of your head because
> it's so terribly true.
>
> Appeasement cost millions of Jews and non-Jews their
> lives, as England and
> France, allies at the time, negotiated and hesitated
> too long before they
> noticed that Hitler had to be fought, not bound to
> toothless agreements.

> Appeasement legitimized and stabilized Communism in
> the Soviet Union, then
> East Germany, then all the rest of Eastern Europe,
> where for decades,
> inhuman suppressive, murderous governments were
> glorified as the
> ideologically correct alternative to all other
> possibilities.
>
> Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran
> rampant in Kosovo, and even
> though we had absolute proof of ongoing mass-murder,
> we Europeans debated
> and debated and debated, and were still debating
> when finally the Americans
> had to come from halfway around the world, into
> Europe yet again, and do our
> work for us.
>
> Rather than protecting democracy in the Middle East,
> European Appeasement,
> camouflaged behind the fuzzy word "equidistance,"
> now countenances suicide
> bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians.
>
> Appeasement generates a mentality that allows Europe
> to ignore nearly
> 500,000 victims of Saddam's torture and murder
>machinery and, motivated by
> the self-righteousness of the peace movement, has
> the gall to issue bad
> grades to George Bush... Even as it is uncovered
> that the loudest critics of
> the American action in Iraq made illicit billions,
> no, TENS of billions, in
> the corrupt U.N. Oil-for-Food program.
>
> And now we are faced with a particularly grotesque
> form of appeasement. How
> is Germany reacting to the escalating violence by
> Islamic Fundamentalists in
> Holland and elsewhere? By suggesting that we really
> should have a "Muslim
> Holiday" in Germany?
>
> I wish I were joking, but I am not. A substantial
> fraction of our (German)
> Government, and if the polls are to be believed, the
> German people, actually
> believe that creating an Official State "Muslim
> Holiday" will somehow spare
> us from the wrath of the fanatical Islamists. One
> cannot help but recall
> Britain's Neville Chamberlain waving the laughable
> treaty signed by Adolph
> Hitler and declaring European "Peace in our time".
>
> What else has to happen before the European public
> and its political
> leadership get it? There is a sort of crusade
> underway, an especially
> perfidious crusade consisting of systematic attacks
> by fanatic Muslims,
> focused on civilians, directed against our free,
> open Western societies, and
> intent upon Western Civilization's utter
> destruction.
>
> It is a conflict that will most likely last longer
> than any of the great
> military conflicts of the last century - a conflict
> conducted by an enemy
> that cannot be tamed by "tolerance" and
> "accommodation" but is actually
> spurred on by such gestures, which have proven to
> be, and will always be
> taken by the Islamists for signs of weakness. Only
> two recent American
> Presidents had the courage needed for
> Anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush.
>
> His American critics may quibble over the details,
> but we Europeans know the
> truth. We saw it first hand: Ronald Reagan ended the
> Cold War, freeing half
> of the German people from nearly 50 years of terror
> and virtual slavery. And
> Bush, supported only by the Social Democrat Blair,
> acting on moral
> conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic War
> against Democracy. His
> place in history will have to be evaluated after a
> number of years have
> passed.
>
> In the meantime, Europe sits back with charismatic
> self-confidence in the
> multicultural corner, instead of defending liberal
> society's values and
> being an attractive center of power on the same
> playing field as the true
> great powers, America and China.
>
> On the contrary - we Europeans present ourselves, in
> contrast to those
> "arrogant Americans", as the World Champions of
> "tolerance", which even
> (Germany's Interior Minister) Otto Schily
> justifiably criticizes. Why?
> Because we're so moral? I fear it's more because
> we're so materialistic, so
> devoid of a moral compass.
>
> For his policies, Bush risks the fall of the dollar,
> huge amounts of
> additional national debt, and a massive and
> persistent burden on the
> American economy - because unlike almost all of
> Europe, Bush realizes what
> is at stake - literally everything.
>
> While we criticize the "capitalistic robber barons"
> of America because they
> seem too sure of their priorities, we timidly defend
> our Social Welfare
> systems. Stay out of it! It could get expensive!
> We'd rather discuss
> reducing our 35-hour workweek or our dental
> coverage, or our 4 weeks of paid
> vacation... Or listen to TV pastors preach about the
> need to "reach out to
> terrorists. To understand and forgive".
>
> These days, Europe reminds me of an old woman who,
> with shaking hands,
> frantically hides her last pieces of jewelry when
> she notices a robber
> breaking into a neighbor's house.
>
> Appeasement?
> Europe, thy name is Cowardice.
> ---God Bless America---
>



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