Who will they call?

Submitted by Arlene Swartzman (United States), Jul 16, 2002 at 17:16

Thanks for the summary of this important essay by Kagan. That Europe is weak and post-modern strikes me as quite right. I have three reactions regarding either the Kagan article or your postscript to it.

One, the WWII and post-WWII role of the US has been that of "Hate-Busters" -- as in "Who ya gonna call?" When Europe was in the process of being overrun by the hate-filled monsters of the Nazi regime, the US came over and helped Europe to conquer this menace and to rebuild their societies; now that they've been protected for the past half-century and feign obliviousness to the hatred rising in their countries, "Who're they gonna call?" when they realize what's happening? Us/the U.S.?

Two, Europe needs to rearm and develop the military infrastructure which they abandoned (for various reasons) after WWII. We need this so they can serve with us in defense of many of the things we hold in common. Europe is strategically important, not only because of our important common traditions and heritage, but also because the threat that a growing Muslim population due to birthrate and an overflowing Muslim population from the Middle East threaten some of these traditions as a Muslim agenda based on religion and tribe threatens European stability and democracy based on various freedoms and individual rights.

Three, add China and Russia to the list you proposed, China because it should prove to be an economic and political powerhouse in the coming years, Russia because it is still economically fragile and is finding ties with Iran to be extremely attractive -- thus feeding the terrorist threat because of its (Russia's) own needs.

Thanks for your good work,

Arlene Swartzman
Chicago, IL

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".