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Europe, Thy Name Is
Cowardice
By Mathias Döpfner,
CEO of the large
German publishing firm
Axel Springer, and
published in the
German periodical
Die Welt on
20 November
2004. With the
friendly permission of
Die Welt, the
article was
republished in the
European Weekly in
January 2005 |
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.
©
2006 All content property of European Weekly unless where otherwise
accredited |
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