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Europe
- Thy Name Is Cowardice
Commentary by
Mathias Döpfner
(Matthias Döpfner, Chief Executive of German publisher Axel Springer
AG, has written a blistering attack in the daily WELT against the
cowardice of
Europe in the face of the Islamic threat. Hartmut Lau translated the
article.Axel Springer AG is a major group of conservative media
companies.)
A few days ago Henryk M. 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 agreements.
Appeasement
stabilized communism in the Soviet Union and East Germany in that part
of
Europe where inhuman, suppressive governments were glorified as the
ideologically correct alternative to all other possibilities.
Appeasement crippled Europe when genocide ran rampant in Kosovo and we
Europeans debated and debated until the Americans came in and did 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 300,000
victims of Saddam's torture and murder machinery and, motivated by the
self-righteousness of the peace-movement, to issue bad grades to
George
Bush. A particularly grotesque form of appeasement is reacting to the
escalating violence by Islamic fundamentalists in Holland and
elsewhere by
suggesting that we should really have a Muslim holiday in Germany.
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 and directed against our free, open Western
societies.
It is a conflict that will most likely last longer than the great
military
conflicts of the last century-a conflict conducted by an enemy that
cannot
be tamed by tolerance and accommodation but only spurred on by such
gestures, which will be mistaken for signs of weakness.
Two recent American presidents had the courage needed for
anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush. Reagan ended the Cold War and Bush,
supported only by the social democrat Blair acting on moral
conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic fight 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 the
intolerant, as world champions in 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.
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 everything is at stake.
While the alleged capitalistic robber barons in American know their
priorities, we timidly defend our social welfare systems. Stay out of
it! It
could get expensive. We'd rather discuss the 35-hour workweek or our
dental health plan coverage. Or listen to TV pastors preach about
"reaching out to murderers." These days, Europe reminds me
of an elderly aunt who hides her last pieces of jewelry with shaking
hands when she notices a robber has broken into a neighbor's house.
Europe, thy name is cowardice.
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