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If any of you still feel that
this war on terror is a mistake, here is an opinion from an unexpected
source. It's fascinating that this should come out of Europe. Mathias
Dapfner, Chief Executive of the huge German publisher Axel Springer AG,
has written a blistering attack in DIE WELT,Germany's largest daily
paper, against the timid reaction of Europe in the face of the Islamic
threat.
This is a must-read by all Americans. History may well certify its correctness.
(Commentary by Mathias Dapfner CEO, Axel Springer, AG)
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.
I wish I were joking, but I am not. [Contiinued]
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A second, possibly more faithful, translation can be found here.
The original was published in the German periodical Die Welt
on 20 November 2004, so it doesn't appear to have had much
of an impact. Maybe it will resonate with some blasé
Americans, so pass it on.
Marc the Miller's son :)
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