HYPERLINK “http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/dapfner.asp”

This is a German writing this:

If any of you still feel that this war on terror is a mistake,

here is an opinion from an unexpected source. This is not a problem

that is going to be easy to solve. It is the struggle to maintain our

Western way of life and the very culture that has made it possible.

Lose this one, and our grandchildren will be speaking Arabic, those of

them that survive the “conversion”.

Look at what has been happening in Europe the last couple of

weeks. For all practical purposes they won Spain without any effort on

their part other than a couple of bombs in public places. Now they are

burning Paris and hitting on Holland and Belgium.

Better get serious, very, very serious!

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

paper, 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.

~~~

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.