Archive for the ‘Europe Political Issues’ Category
By Alan Caruba
What I know about NATO, the North American Treaty Organization, you could put in a bug’s ear. Well, that’s not quite true. I do know the treaty was signed April 4, 1949. It was the result of Cold War fears that the Soviet Union represented a military threat to Europe.
A commentary by E. Wayne Merry that appeared in The Journal of International Security Affairs, “An Obsolete Alliance”, caught my eye. The author is a former State Department and Pentagon official who is now a Senior Associate of the American Foreign Policy Council.
Merry posed a question that had buzzed around in the back of my brain for a long time. Why is the United States still a member of NATO, an alliance that initially was intended to exist for twenty years, but whose life and mission has been expanding now for nearly sixty years? Since the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s and the Cold War is over, why does the U.S. or Europe need NATO?
“Over the years, NATO has turned its back on its inherently defensive and conservative origins to become a shameless hustler after engagements to justify its own perpetuation,” writes Merry. He quotes Manfred Woerner, its Secretary General in the early 1990s, who said that in order to survive NATO “must go out of area or go out of business.”
NATO was established by the Treaty of Washington and Merry points out that it was “purely defensive; nothing in it can legitimize use of force other than in response to a direct attack against its members. Article V, contrary to popular myth, does not even commit its members to the use of force.” As such, “NATO lost its basic raison d’etre years ago, as Europe’s need for American troops ended long before the Cold War did.”
Thus, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO was left without a threat or a legitimate purpose. Merry correctly reminds us that “It is axiomatic that nothing in government is so long lasting as temporary measures. Policies, programs and appropriations initiated to respond to a transitory issue take on lives of their own, spawning institutions which not only outlive their purpose, but themselves create new problems to justify their continued existence.”
By Thomas E. Brewton
The light of God's truth has been snuffed out in Europe, now the least Christian and the most secularized and socialized part of the world.
This week, Black Rock Congregational Church is focusing on worldwide missionary programs and the 20-plus missionaries that the church supports. In that connection, rather than a traditional sermon, we at Black Rock-Long Ridge Congregational Church (North Stamford, Connecticut) heard a report by Dr. Ted Noble, one of those missionaries. His subject was the appalling decline of Christianity throughout Europe.
Fewer than one percent of Europeans are Christian believers. Elsewhere, especially in Africa and Asia, the percentage is much higher and growing. Europe has become a spiritual wasteland in which people look to the political state for their salvation.
In the 19th century, Africa, the Dark Continent, was looked upon as the great field of activity for Christian missionaries. Conditions are the reverse today. American Episcopalians, for example, who seek a return to the Bible and a turning away from the secularized social gospel that has overtaken their church, now look to African bishoprics for support.
Dr. Nobel talked mostly about the opportunities and the needs for missionary work in Europe. But it's important also to ask why Europe is in spiritual decline.
Even those in a position of power and influence, who could have prevented the seriousness of the discrimination, chose not to. Teachers especially, could have helped prevent the younger generation from developing this type of discrimination in schools, out of schools and in later life. However, both German schools and the Hitler youth discriminated against Jews by teaching lessons that were designed to do this and to teach that Aryans were the superior race. One of the main areas of teaching where discrimination took place was in racial science where students were taught how Jews had a different skull shape/size to Aryans and other races and taught how they could identify a Jew by their physical features; this created a lot of discrimination towards Jews among the young people of Germany.
One of the events to describe and demonstrate how Jews were discriminated against in Germany is the April Boycott; for one day Germans all over the country were told not to buy from shops and business' owned by Jews. SA men stood by the doors of these shops to discourage anyone from going inside. The SA men would have discouraged business, leading business away from the Jews and back into Aryan owned businesses and shops. This is discriminating against the Jews and while it was probably very beneficial to the Aryans working at the time, the Jews would have lost business, and would be looked at differently by Germans.
In many places in Germany, there were signs that read 'Jews not welcome here'. These could be put on park benches, outside places of public interest, or even where it means that Jews are not welcome in the village, city or town. This separates Jews from the rest of the population, by discriminating against them, making Germans feel like they are different people to them, so they should be treated differently!
By Daniel Clark
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has decided to postpone the construction of an American missile defense base in his country, a move that news reports have attributed to his being less pro-American than his predecessor, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Tusk’s reason for this change in policy, however, does not indicate an erosion of the Poles’ loyalty to their American allies. Rather, it is based on their concerns about America’s wavering dedication to its own missile defense project.
Tusk wants to delay the deployment of the missile shield until after this year’s U.S. presidential election, and it’s hard to argue with his judgment. Everybody knows that if the Democrats win the presidency, they will mothball our missile defense plan, just as Bill Clinton did for the entire eight years of his administration. Russia, the powerful and cantankerous neighbor to Poland’s east, has protested the U.S. missile shield from the outset. If Tusk proceeds with the project, only to see it abandoned by our next president, he’ll have antagonized the Kremlin for no good reason.
It’s not as if the Poles would have a hard time believing that the Democrats would hang them out to dry. That’s because Poland has been among our most trusted allies in Iraq – you know, the ones that John Kerry slandered as "the coalition of the bribed and coerced." Those allies can’t help but be leery of Kerry’s party, members of which have threatened to cut off funding for the war, demanded a "redeployment" to Okinawa, and refused to accept the delivery of good news from General Petraeus.
With the prospect of a Democrat victory in November, Poland risks angering not only Russia, but also a newly elected, Democrat-controlled government here in the U.S.
The real story out of Poland, then, is that the Democrats have succeeded in deterring an ally from helping the United States. This is important not only insofar as their obstruction of our missile defenses are concerned, but also in serving as a parallel to their effect on another important American ally – the people of Iraq.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Aug. 21 /Christian Newswire/ — Author and Christian broadcaster Dr. D. James Kennedy connects the dots between Charles Darwin and Adolf Hitler in Darwin’s Deadly Legacy, a groundbreaking inquiry into Darwin’s chilling social impact. The new television documentary airs nationwide on August 26 and 27 on The Coral Ridge Hour. For station listings, go to http://www.coralridge.org/darwin/.
What: New TV documentary, Darwin’s Deadly Legacy
When: August 26, 27, 2006
Where: Nationwide; details at http://www.coralridge.org/darwin/
The program features 14 scholars, scientists, and authors who outline the grim consequences of Darwin’s theory of evolution and show how his theory fueled Hitler’s ovens.
“To put it simply, no Darwin, no Hitler,” said Dr. Kennedy, the host of Darwin’s Deadly Legacy. “Hitler tried to speed up evolution, to help it along, and millions suffered and died in unspeakable ways because of it.”
The one-hour program features Ann Coulter, author of Godless; Richard Weikart, author of From Darwin to Hitler; Lee Strobel, author of The Case for a Creator; Jonathan Wells, author of Icons of Evolution; Phillip Johnson, author of Darwin on Trial; Michael Behe, author of Darwin’s Black Box; Ian Taylor, author of In the Minds of Men, and Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project.
“Among German historians, there’s really not much debate about whether or not Hitler was a social Darwinist. He clearly was drawing on Darwinian ideas,” said Weikart, a professor of modern European history at California State University, Stanislaus.
Ann Coulter, a bestselling author and popular conservative columnist, said Hitler “was applying Darwinism. He thought the Aryans were the fittest and he was just hurrying natural selection along.”
When is the killing of civilians in last summer in the bombing attacks Great Britain ever considered justified?
Surely not in the UK or North America!
But in a recent article in the Scotsman the bombings are 'justified' according to a quarter of British Muslims.
ALMOST a quarter of British Muslims say the 7/7 bombings can be justified because of the Government's support for the war on terror, according to an opinion poll.
And nearly half of those polled, or 45 per cent, believe the 9/11 attacks on New York were a conspiracy between the United States and Israel. The survey, for a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary to be screened tonight, found Muslims under 24 were twice as likely to justify the 7/7 attacks as those aged over 45. It found 24 per cent either agreed or tended to agree that the 7/7 bombings were justified, although 48 per cent said they "strongly disagreed".
A third of those questioned said they would rather live under Sharia law in the UK than British law.
The survey also reveals concerns among Muslims about Britain's moral standards, with 40 per cent saying it is a country of bad moral behaviour.
The world’s communities are responding against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks concerning that the Holocaust was a myth and that all Jews sin the Middle-East should be relocated to Europe. They are not happy with his negative statements against Israel.
According to German Law it is illegal to deny the Holocaust.
Germany’s foreign minister warned Thursday that the international community is losing patience with Iran after its president denied the Holocaust as a "myth."
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also said the issue would be addressed at this week’s European Union summit.
In Beijing, the Chinese government also criticized Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks, saying it was opposed to actions that could undermine world stability.
The German government has condemned Wednesday’s remarks by Ahmadinejad and called on the United Nations and EU to follow suit. Berlin says the comments will also weigh on talks over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
Source: TownHall.com
Let’s hope that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tones down his rhetoric and takes his foot out of his mouth.
The riots in France come as no surprise once the facts behind them is known. What is viewed as racial or cultural unrest, theses riots may actually be the beginnings of a possible European civil war. The riots were ignited when two African youths were electrocuted in an unfortunate accident. And have since, spread to Brussels and Germany.
The European birth rate is declining and as the baby boomers reach the retirement age, there is a shortage of young workers to fill the gaps in the work force. To replace the retirees, France and other European countries have been encouraging immigration from their former colonies with the intention and promise of a better standard of living and integration to the host’s country’s society while keeping their home culture intact.
The integration is not working as plan.
Most of the immigrants are living in Stalin-like no-man land neighborhoods, where the police fear to enter and patrol. Unemployment is high and they do not feel that they are part of the French culture. They may be French citizens, but they are not of the French culture but still have the nationalism fervor and cultural bonds to their homeland. In France, 10% of the immigrants are Islamic.
A majority of the rioters are second generation Algerian Muslims, young men in their late teens and early twenties. All Muslims revere the Islamic hero from the Second Crusades, General Saladin. When the Muslim men feel they are threatened or in a frustrated situation, the men will rally in a frenzy fellowship in the name of Saladin and may call for revenge or Jihad.
The media has been reporting the declining number of vehicles burnt as an indicator the riots are subsiding. But that may be a false indication as the number of available target vehicles available is less than at the start of the riots. You can not burn a vehicle more than once.
Let’s hope this is not the start of a cultural revolution as it will have ramifications in the United States.