Who ya gonna call when Europe's feckless and pathetic?

Leon De Winter describes how Europe has lost any sense of itself as having anything worth fighting for. Europe today considers its greatest achievement the creation of the welfare state with its attendant "postmodern cultural relativism," tolerance, liberalism, pacifism, and secularism. After WWII, Europe turned to "radical pacifism and post-nationalism." Today it participates, if at all, only symbolically in Iraq.

"An Iranian bomb threatens the very existence of Western civilization," says Mr. De Winter. Yet, Europe's "philosophy holds that 'soft power' alone can be brought to bear in any conflict between power blocs or ideologies or civilizations." Europe won't sacrifice its sons in any conflict, least of all one involving Iran.

Europe, being enmired in political and historical illusion, thus leaves the Free World with two options in Iran -- "disaster or catastrophe":

Europe could have suppressed the Iranian threat if it had convinced the mullahs two years ago that it was willing to contemplate military options. Only[,] Europe lacks core values that it holds sacrosanct and that it's willing to defend at the highest cost. It will continue to operate on the diplomatic field and cling to soft power even though this is the path of certain defeat when confronted with power players burning with geopolitical and religious ambitions.

American will, alas, yet again step up to clean up the mess that Europe has helped to create by its failure to act decisively and with vision. George Bush did both in his decision to take out Iraq.

Unfortunately, the hardest battles lie just ahead of the West the United States, Israel, Britain, and Australia.

"Soft Europe. Is the Continent willing to fight for anything, besides a welfare check?." By Leon De Winter, Wall Street Journal, 3/7/06.