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European "intellectual elite"?

Reader comment on item: [Appeasement Explains] Why Europe Balks

Submitted by David Wolf (United States), Jan 28, 2003 at 23:38

I must wonder if there is such thing as this fabled "european intellectual elite". It would seem that the european political discourse (I won't say dialogue- "cacaphony of mewling" would be more appropriate) is centered around the viewpoints of the same type of ignorant, braying masses (who spout the latest inane platitudes) as they accuse the US of being populated by.

The sophomoric rhetoric of these "career student radicals" is based on nothing more than cultural self-hatred and flagrant emotionalism- while it is true that the deaths of civilians are tragic, crying "But think about the innocent people!" is not in and of itself a reason to appease a tyrant.

When I hear a frenchman mouth the ludicrously empty phrase "Libert, equality and fraternity", I am at first nearly overcome with the urge to vomit. That urge shortly gives way to the urge to chuckle at the irony of that saying as it comes from the mouth of a modern Frenchman. For all of their righteous indignance at the "arrogant" and "imperialistic" American foreign policy, we must remond them of a few notable facts:

1.) French colonial rule of west africa, and France's (overt) use of slave labor/pillaging of minerals ended (at least in the public sense) a mere forty years ago- by comparison, the US began it's renunciation of racial inequities nearly one hundred years prior. Which nation, then, has the most recent record of colonial abuses? Ask a west african how they feel when they hear the words "Liberte, egalite, et fraternite".
Where is that same frenzied chorus of tears for Senegal, or Mali, or Cote D'Ivoire?

The Iraqis seems to have monopolized the market on french sympathy.

2.) French troops are currently involved in military action in Ivory coast- why? Are they there to restore democracy, or to address a threat to French assets or citizens? It would seem that precious little is said by the average Frenchman in regards to their country's involvement in west africa- either now or in the past.

3.) While the French and Germans pulled their collective beards and wondered what was to be done about Slobodan Milosevic and his three wars of expansion and ritualized murder, the US was compelled to drag them kicking and screaming to face their moral (if not legal under NATO pacts) obligations to the people of the balkans. At that, the endemically contrary French still refused to allow the UN or NATO to overfly their airspace while fighting to restore order in Kosovo. Is it that Kosovars aren't "muslim" enough to curry the French affections, or is it simply that the collctive guilt over being the last colonists to persist in north and west africa makes them more sympathetic to "real" ( read arab/berber) muslims? Which nation is "arrogant" and "imperialist"?

I think that the US administration, mindful of the hurt feelings that would arise from stating this plainly, should begin to treat western europe as excactly what it is- an area of steadily decreasing import to the fortunes of the US. Similarly, the next time France chooses to be "watchfully tolerant" of another threat massing against them, the US should return the favor and deliberate, obfuscate, and generally do nothing while they are forced to kneel on their prayer rugs towards the west five times a day.

The UN is, thaks to the actions of the French and Germans, slipping into the same irrelevance that they insist is the consequence of our unilateralism. The French and Germans now see the UN as a means of expressing, and propagating, their inert policies regarding UN reso. 1441.

As an afterthought, as I advised my young and somewhat naive nephew that next time someone passionately against war with Iraq harangues him, to ask them some questions- can they name more than one muslim fundamentalist group, or the theatre in which each of them operates?

If not, I suggest you are being harangued by someone who hasn't the first shred of an idea about geopolitics, or religion, or tradition, or anything at all. When a movement exists solely on the stridency of it's rhetoric (as the current anti-war movement does), it is groundless. What the new left doesn't seem to get is this- 9/11 changed the rules of engagement. They see the US targeting Iraq, but they don't see the common goals of the Islamists which make it necessary for us to treat Hussein as the threat he is- part of a much larger whole.

Thanks again, Dr. Pipes, for continuing your work.

David Wolf
Submitting....

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Reader comments (46) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Appeasement [to Islamists] Doesn't Pay! [909 words]RobertFeb 17, 2008 18:20120427
Self-Determination and Stalin [297 words]GeorgeMar 11, 2004 14:0414172
Pax America in timespan of 100-150 years [225 words]René PoulsenJan 21, 2004 21:2113480
"Appeasement" [359 words]Alexander BoerMay 9, 2003 12:528974
One does not need to go that far ... [106 words]One Reader from EuropeFeb 20, 2003 00:546791
Europe is full of fears [160 words]Frank LukeFeb 17, 2003 17:276704
Why Germany really balks [124 words]Felix DistelFeb 8, 2003 12:076495
The Hitler of Our Time [131 words]Robert SydowFeb 4, 2003 15:516389
Grotesque over-simplification [135 words]David QuinFeb 4, 2003 04:086345
Excellent article & Hello World! [118 words]EurocitizenFeb 3, 2003 16:056333
comment to SC Panda.. [48 words]amiexpatFeb 3, 2003 07:346311
France&Germany [73 words]Cyril RohacFeb 2, 2003 22:266298
Compromise with Evil, it wins [49 words]Les JordanFeb 2, 2003 18:026285
Ah, but will Europe appease the US ? [34 words]W SeltzerJan 31, 2003 19:046210
3 Reasons [38 words]S.C.PandaJan 31, 2003 00:546159
Disturbingly accurate [478 words]RichardJan 30, 2003 10:256124
Learning from History [248 words]s.r.judahJan 30, 2003 09:196123
appeasement [188 words]tom hickieJan 30, 2003 09:106122
The French and the Islamic Bomb [219 words]Arlinda M. De AngelisJan 29, 2003 22:366117
Muslim minorities [30 words]Tom HewittJan 29, 2003 21:026114
appeasement [138 words]Mr.Daniel TobinJan 29, 2003 14:576107
Our European Friends [95 words]GeorgeJan 29, 2003 14:296104
Divide and rule [275 words]Gabriel GrossoJan 29, 2003 14:286103
Selective Memory [92 words]Shirley DobryJan 29, 2003 11:106098
Super power or Imperial Hegamon? [232 words]Glenn KlotzJan 29, 2003 09:556095
Why is Iraq a good place to start? [452 words]Calisse CansimeJan 29, 2003 09:486094
What about the Muslim factor. [14 words]Max FrancisJan 29, 2003 09:316092
America is not our Enemy [289 words]Gabriel GrossoJan 29, 2003 05:486090
WHY WAR!! [51 words]Johan EzrachJan 29, 2003 02:036084
War What's It Good For [41 words]Tom DundeeMar 13, 2010 21:456084
Psychology of Appeasement [226 words]Richard ReayJan 29, 2003 01:536083
Old Europe, "Submit to the PEACE of ISLAM" [145 words]Tim CoulterJan 29, 2003 01:046081
European "intellectual elite"? [747 words]David WolfJan 28, 2003 23:386079
The French and Germans [32 words]Bobby LoJan 28, 2003 20:496077
Europe is out of control [128 words]Thomas J. JacksonJan 28, 2003 20:256076
Axis of irrelevance [261 words]Jean MartinJan 28, 2003 18:546073
Pax Europa? [25 words]Don WoodJan 28, 2003 17:526071
Comprehensibility of Wars [152 words]Joseph SomselJan 28, 2003 15:166065
Old dreams, down but not out [146 words]Neil AbramsonJan 28, 2003 15:146064
Hitler Channel [48 words]Paul M. NevilleJan 28, 2003 14:386063
The French: Can You Trust Them? [102 words]Max MaloJan 28, 2003 14:096062
Diplomacy must have an endpoint [106 words]cookieJan 28, 2003 13:376061
Agreement [19 words]D.SokolJan 28, 2003 08:466035
Back to Thucydides [157 words]Kafka1302Jan 28, 2003 08:206033
Not all Europeans are appeasers [317 words]David RoseJan 28, 2003 07:516032
Amen! [32 words]Brennan SchweitzerJan 28, 2003 07:156030

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