It’s not new, but it is true: This German gets it

Had an email sent to me concerning an essay by one Mathias Döpfner, CEO Axel Springer, and written as an editorial for Die Welt. In the essay Döpfner gives Europe a smackdown for its complacency and timidity in confronting Islamic fanaticism.

The sendee had no url, so I googled it and found a link to the whole editorial at Free Republic. But since there was, even there, no url, I checked with Snopes.com and found that yes, the editorial is genuine, but not especially new. It was printed in Die Welt on November 20, 2004, Europa – dein Name ist Feigheit.

It’s pretty tasty. Any of the links above will take you to it. An excerpt:

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 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.