THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 56, March 18, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
FRANCE, GERMANY, & SPAIN VIS-A-VIS THE WAR ON TERRORISM:
SHORT MEMORIES & BAD ATTITUDES
By Alan Caruba
France, Germany and now Spain have failed to join the war against global Islamic terrorism.
We all see history through the prism of our own lives. I was born just prior to World War II in 1937. Franklin Delano Roosevelt would
begin his second term as President that year and the United States of America was still struggling to get out of the Depression. In
Europe, Adolf Hitler was in control of Germany, telling them they were the “Master Race.” France thought it was safe behind the
Maginot Line, and an appeaser named Neville Chamberlain led Great Britain. Spain was neutral and under the control of the dictator,
Francisco Franco.
In 1938, at Germany’s demand, Great Britain and France would agree to carve up Czechoslovakia, ceding the Sudetenland to Germany to
avoid war. Austria would be taken over by Germany that same year. After war had broken out in Europe, Germany and the Soviet
Union, in 1941, divided up Poland, a territorial arrangement agreed to by the Nazi and Communist regimes in exchange for a mutual
non-aggression pact. The original “axis of evil” was formed between Germany, Japan and Italy. Hitler would betray every promise he
made, since that’s what dictators do.
By the time I was born, the Japanese Empire had controlled Manchuria since 1931 and later much of eastern China as well as all of
Korea. On December 7, 1941, they would launch a sneak attack on the United States, bringing it into a war that had begun in 1939,
when Germany invaded Poland. By the war’s end, the U.S.A would emerge a dominant world power and, then, for the next fifty years
would face off with the Soviet Union to insure that its brand of Communism would not enslave all of Europe and much of the rest of
the world. The U.S.A. expended billions to do this. We are now repeating this process as the world’s lone superpower.
After World War II, the U.S.A. and Great Britain, in order to protect Europe, formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. We
would keep our troops in Europe to protect it from the Soviet Union for the next fifty years and our troops remain there today,
pumping billions into the treasuries of European nations. Under Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, the U.S.A.
created the United Nations to avoid future worldwide conflicts. Like the League of Nations before it, the UN would prove incapable
of stopping war or genocides anywhere. It would, however, seek to extend its powers into all aspects of international affairs, moving
slowly, but steadily, to establish itself as world government.
In the years following World War II, we watched China come under the control of Communists. We protected Japan and other
Pacific nations from the same fate. We would fight and lose a proxy war in Vietnam. In time, we saw the Soviet Union implode after
the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany.
Throughout this long era, Americans remained utterly steadfast in our devotion to constitutional democracy, individual freedom,
and free-market capitalism. We thrived. In Europe, however, statism and socialism would become the order of the day and their
economies would stagnate.
France and Germany, eager to be regarded as world powers, would engineer the European Union, a huge socialist bureaucracy,
only to see new, former Eastern Bloc nations join the EU. France and Germany, with their ambition to dominate the EU, hoped to
use it to shift the balance of power in the world away from the U.S.A. The reason they gave for the creation of the EU was to
provide a counterpoint to the economic and military strength of America.
Under the EU, however, Europe has fallen further behind the U.S.A., as job growth in Europe eroded, public finances deteriorated
in each member-nation, and, across the continent, the average unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent. Both France and Germany
are running budget deficits in excess of 3 percent of gross domestic product, a violation of the ground rules for a shared currency.
Moreover, France and Germany have failed to make required EU economic and labor law reforms.
Despite the obvious need to restructure the Middle East and set it on a path toward constitutional democratic governance, the
fiercest opposition to the liberation of the Iraqi people, during the period since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has
come from France and Germany. It is well to keep in mind, however, that, in addition to Tony Blair’s courageous support of
American objectives, Italy, Poland and some fifty other nations have supported regime change in Iraq. Even Japan and South
Korea have sent troops to Iraq.
We have now seen Spain reverse course in the war on terrorism, choosing a Socialist government after bombings in Madrid that
killed over 200 innocent victims. The invasion of Iraq had been unpopular with Spain's population and, therefore, Europe’s
historic inclination toward appeasement with any enemy prevailed in the March 14 Spanish election. Along with France and
Germany, the Spanish voters are people with short memories and very bad attitudes.
History teaches that the failure to resist despotism always requires a far higher price than resistance. Since the late 1970s, the
fanatical Islamic movement that has set itself against Western Civilization poses the greatest challenge to freedom everywhere.
The timidity and perfidy of France, Germany, and Spain -- nations that owe so much to the United States and Britain -- must be
left to future historians to record. The biggest question now is whether Europe can withstand Islamization? This is the most
significant factor that will determine its future. A dangerous indicator of serious trouble is the rise of European anti-Semitism,
always a precursor to conflict.
Just as the dynamic of world affairs changed following the end of World War II, international affairs, after 9-11, has changed
dramatically. The U.S.A. invaded Afghanistan to drive out the Taliban and take this base away from Osama bin Laden’s
al-Qa'ida terrorist movement. The special relationship between the U.S.A. and Great Britain has led the way in the war to change
the Middle East by removing Saddam Hussein from power. By July, Iraq will regain a measure of its sovereignty, the gift of
American, British and other nation’s blood and money.
The United Nations, founded as an instrument to achieve world peace, has once again demonstrated it is a failed bureaucracy
incapable of fulfilling its mandate to avoid wars and other conflicts. It needs to be retired and replaced with a new and very
different federation of powers to oversee international affairs.
The war against Islamic ambitions to dominate the world must now be fought with relentless determination until this threat is
destroyed. We have sufficient allies in this cause. We could use the support of France, Germany, and Spain.
In this new century, the courage of free people everywhere once again, is going to be severely tested in the years ahead.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Europe, Europeans, & American Foreign Policy
The Middle East & the Arabs
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center,
and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly
column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center
(www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past col- umns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition
to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States,
both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 9 Brookside Road, Maplewood, New Jersey, 07040.
Copyright 2004 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume VI, 2004
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights, Page Two
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights, Page One
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy