> Serbs murdered more Albanian Kosovars after the NATO bombing campaign began. We did not stop ethnic cleansing by attacking Serbia, we facilitated it. The bombing was not particularly effective in destroying Serbia's military, was never backed up by threat of a NATO ground invasion, and it gave Serbs the cover of war to carry out their dirty deeds. What's worse, Madeline Albright, Richard Holbrook, and Bill Clinton knew that the ethnic cleansing would probably get worse after NATO started bombing. Their goal wasn't to save Kosovars' lives, it was to re-legitimize NATO as a military institution in Russia's former back yard. It was a war to save NATO, not the Kosovars.
> "...bombings in Israel by fundamentalist Palestinians." By slipping in that word "fundamentalist" he's trying to group Palestinians in with every other Islamic terrorist with a gripe in the world. Nice try. But the fact is, Palestinians have been some of the least "fundamentalist" Muslims in the Mideast. Their grievances against Israel have been and remain territorial, not religious. Over time, some Palestinians' religion may have become more radicalized, but only because extreme Muslim groups and countries like Iran have been the first to offer aid and support.
> "Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War." You can't debunk this myth enough times. The USSR was always doomed to fall apart, because it was a murderous, inefficient, illegitimate government. Things like the USSR's failed war in Afghanistan, regional separatism & Russian chauvanism, glastnost and perestroika starting an unitended wildfire of freedom the government couldn't put under control, and yearning for consumer culture ended the Soviet Union, not Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan just took all the credit. Even if Ronald Reagan played an important role (which I don't believe), he didn't "end" the Soviet Union himself, to the exclusion of all the forces mentioned above, and others. If it were that easy to overthrow a regime, by speeches and threats and military buildups, then Saddam Hussein's Iraq -- which was a weakling compared to the USSR -- should have been crushed easily under 10 years of combined U.S. and Western pressure. The invasion of Iraq never should have been necessary, if speeches and threats could topple regimes!
> Ah... Oil-for-Food again. The stealing under Oil-for-Food was nothing compared to the $ billions in Saddam's outright smuggling under the U.S.-led embargo. And WE (THE U.S. GOV'T) KNEW ABOUT IT BUT DID NOTHING because Saddam was selling this cheap oil to our allies like Turkey.
His main point, that Germany's creating a Muslim holiday is appeasement, is laughable, unless he believes (which he does, the lunatic!) that Germany is "at war" with Muslims. A growing number of Germans are Muslim. Many are from secular, democratic Turkey, a staunch U.S. ally, and a model of what we would like the entire Mideast to look like. Perhaps, therefore, it's not appeasement, but rather courtesy and common sense, for Germany to recognize their religion positively? What's the harm in that?
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: May 29, 2007 8:34 PM
Subject: Fw: German Editorial - EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE
To: Undisclosed-Recipient
From:
Date: May 29, 2007 8:34 PM
Subject: Fw: German Editorial - EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE
To: Undisclosed-Recipient
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 appea sement." 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 d ental 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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