Can Europe Survive Another World War?
Europe reached the height of its global power and influence about the time of WW1, when it suddenly decided to attempt suicide. It almost succeeded with this in WW2, and it was mainly the intervention of its offspring, the USA, that enabled it to linger on ever since. Will we finally succeed in committing civilizational suicide this time, after a century of trying? Or will the Americans, the bastards, hinder us again?Although Bjørn Stærk thinks it is hyperbole, I'm pretty sure Muslim immigration will trigger major unrest and civil wars in the near future. A world war caused by Islamic aggression is a real possibility, and becomes more likely with each passing day. At this point, I find it more interesting to debate what will happen to Europe after all this has happened. Can Europe survive another world war? Or will halting and reversing the Islamic expansion zap whatever is left of our strength and vigor? We could get a situation where Europe manages to stay non-Muslim, but fades away and declines to second - or third world status, leaving the global scene to the USA and Asian countries. Is Europe a spent force in the world? Maybe in the future, people will look at the small penninsula sticking out of Asia and wonder how they ever became so powerful.
I can envision a more positive outcome of this battle. Maybe the struggle with Islam will force us to rethink who we are, and trigger a renewal that Europe sorely needs. It will be painful, but necessary. European renewals can be messy stuff. As the quote goes in one Hollywood classic ("The Third Man"?):
"........In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed - but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long, Holly........"
Will European democracy be lost in the process, or will it in fact be saved from the neo-Feudalism of Brussels and the EU? Will the transatlantic ties be strengthened by this, or broken once and for all? Could we see Eastern Europe surpass Western Europe as the dynamic heart of the continent?
posted by Unknown @ 10:05 AM
1 Comments:
Fjordman,
I think most thoughtful conservatives in America already believe that we are in a World War with Islamofascism. I usually explain it to people by saying that it is 1938-39 right now. It's just the beginning. Most people just don't realize what is happening yet.
By the way, you will often find thoughtful America conservatives referring to this war as World War IV. They classify the cold war as World War III.
Thus far, this war has progressed very slowly, and relatively peacefully. Other than the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has primarily been characterized by terrorist attacks in places as diverse as Indonesia, the Phillipines, Egypt, America, Spain, England, Chechneya, etc. These terrorist attacks have been answered with police action, and international cooperation on intelligence and by attempting to shut down terrorist funding.
It would be nice if the war could continue to progress this way. It would be nice if we could win it this way. I correspond with a Ivy-league type who fully believes that the war will continue to progess this way. He believes the war will go on like this for 40-60 years and eventually the Islamists will get tired, bored, and decide they'd rather do something productive with their lives.
Wouldn't that be nice? That seems like an laughably naiive belief to me, but I think many thoughtful people believe that scenario as well.
Here's what I think; there are three danger spots in this war,
1) Iran - Iran has already threatened the U.S. (in apocalyptic terms) that if we so much as take them to the Security Council over their nuclear program, we are dead meat. Is their threat just more Islamic bombast, or do they know something we don't know?
2) Al Qaeda sought and received a fatwa declaring that they had the right to kill 2 million Americans. Al Qaeda has said an Islamic atomic bomb is a duty.
3) Thomas the Wraith's scenario of the European right gaining power is another one that I worry about.
Any one of these three scenarios could send this, thus far, relatively peaceful World War into the realm of the first two World Wars.
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