An Ex-European Looks Back At The Old
Country and Wonders: How Did Europe Go So Wrong?
12/29/2005
As a native West Berliner who grew up during the Cold War with the Soviet Army five miles down the road, I feel that I owe my liberty and opportunity mostly to the fact that the United States stood up for what it believed in.
I do know from personal experience what Americans stand for. Not many Europeans do. Even back in the '80s I could see that wealth and comfort - plus a long legacy of socialism - had caused Europeans to forget which side their bread is buttered on.
The cowboy gets a European greeting
I can remember a bright day in June 1982. I found myself wedged in a throng of people in West Berlin. We were waiting for a controversial US President to take the stage - a man derided by smug Euro-leftists as a "cowboy" - for being American, for not being liberal, for not changing his views to suit the "pacifist" rabble that the Berlin policemen could barely contain.
The lefties had mobilized to greet Ronald Reagan. And when I say mobilized, I mean mobilized. Counterculture riot tourists descended on the city days ahead of time. The airwaves were filled with a moronic anti-American song penned by an aging leftwing fool. "Artists" expressed their opinion of Reagan in their chosen medium of feces.
This was not unusual. Not a weekend went by when there weren't large-scale demonstrations in Berlin, with thousands of unwashed juveniles sporting leather jackets and long greasy hair. They protested against nuclear energy, government housing policy, you name it - but first and foremost against Ronald Reagan's tough line on the Soviet Union.
And they weren't all that peaceful. Most of the demonstrations ended in violence.
We love freedom! Please bill Washington.
Even at the tender age of 18, I could see the irony: The democratic rights used and abused by the anti-American demonstrators were theirs because of America's commitment to West Germany and West Berlin.
Without American troops - hopelessly outgunned by the surrounding Warsaw Pact forces - the long hair alone would have been reason enough for the Soviets to round up the demonstrators and throw them in prison as "degenerates."
I made my way home that day on public transportation, carrying an American flag, and arriving unharmed - maybe because I was a husky 6'4" or maybe because I traveled part of the way in the company of a dashing US Special Forces soldier. He was one of my parents' circle of American friends who spent weekends and holidays at our house.
So pardon me if I chuckle when I hear that anti-American sentiment is a product of George W. Bush and the War in Iraq. I've seen the movie before. Call the current version Cowboy II. The Western European mainstream has been anti-American for decades.
I don't know what Europe stands for these days. . .
Comfortable shoes, political correctness, dumbed-down foreign movies and video games, and a fashionable love for "peace." Except "peace" isn't the word I'd choose for it.
A poll in France showed that more than 30% were rooting for Saddam and another 20% didn't care one way or the other. Has the darkness settled over Europe to such an extent that over half the French rooted outright for a mass murderer, or couldn't make up their minds whether a US victory is preferable to a brutal dictatorship?
As the saying goes, "With friends like these. . ."
When Saddam was captured, French camera crews practically climbed on top of the mass graves to get a better shot of the poor dictator's mistreatment by imperialist Americans. The Iraqi who revealed Saddam's whereabouts was a "collaborator" and a traitor, according to Germany's leading magazine.
Why discover one's inner dove when it comes to Saddam? Pardon me if I don't buy it when Russia, China, and France suddenly pose as peace advocates.
Don't be fooled. They were Saddam's biggest trading partners and had their own designs on Iraq's oil fields. Before the war, France, Russia, and China, respectively, held 798, 862, and 227 "oil for food" contracts. The United States had one and Britain eight. You don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
Europe's sorry state makes me thank God I'm an American.And this is one of the best times in history to be one. You see, as part of the wealthiest and freest nations ever, we're in the absolute best position to amass personal wealth in 2006 and beyond.
For example, as this report goes to press. . .
1. Two-thirds of American corporations beat earnings estimates.
2. Total corporate earnings are the highest in history.
3. Earnings as a percentage of GDP are the highest in 40 years.
4. Earnings are up 10% year-over-year, twice as high as forecasted. And very good for the third year of a recovery.
5. Mortgage interest rates: Down ten out of the last 11 months. The 30-year fixed rate is at a 15-month low in spite of Fed 'tightening.'
6.Other interest rates: No problem. US rates are up only on the short end. Long-term rates are DOWN. There's downward pressure on European rates, too.
7.American unemployment is close to historic lows: only 5.0%. British is close to historic lows - 5.0%. The European figure: 8.9%. The German figure: 11.8%. The French figure: 10.2%.
8.How many jobless people have been out of work more than a year? In America, only 12%. In Europe, almost half.
9.Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 who have a job: 60%. Britain: 63%. France: 37%. Italy: 30%. Germany: 39%.
10. US inflation: Only 2.8% over the last 12 months, in spite of the surge in oil prices.
11. The dollar? Up against all major currencies since the first of the year.
12. The US federal budget deficit: $100 billion lower than expected, $62 billion lower than 2004, and shrinking fast. Supply-side economics, anyone?
13. US budget deficit as percentage of GDP: Lower than in the 1980s. And lower than France, Germany, and Japan.
14. Surpluses among the 50 states: $50 billion. Meaning that total government borrowing is less than 2.5% of GDP. It's a non-problem. Forget about it.
15. US GDP growth: 3.1% British (2004): 3.5%. German GDP growth: Nearly zero. Overall European growth: 0.3% -- nearly zero. Japan? Nearly zero, for almost 15 years.
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