EUROPE - THY NAME IS COWARDICE

Commentary by Mathias Dapfner, Chief Executive of the huge German
publisher Axel Springer AG. He 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.

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. (Bramlett note:
Sounds like some of the kowtowing in the U.S.)

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 t he 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.

"All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is
for enough good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke