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Alright, I almost told this guy to never send me any email again, but then I thought maybe I should refute the points and send to EVERYONE on his email list.
Need some help from the experts here.
Thanks in advance!
Subject: A message from Europe for Americans to appreciate
It's fascinating that this should come out of Europe.
Matthias Dapfner, Chief Executive of the huge German publisher Axel
Springer AG, has written a blistering attack in DIE WELT,
Germany's largest daily newspaper, against the timid reaction of Europe
in the face of the Islamic threat.
This is a must read by all Americans. History, will certify its correctness.
George Reppas
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 Adolf 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.
------ End of Forwarded Message
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