In Case You Missed These...

There were some excellent "must read" columns this week. Here are a few of my faves:

Daniel Henninger wonders if Americans have lost the will to fight the war against terrorism in his Opinion Journal piece.

Did the Senate apology for failing to enact federal anti-lynching legislation decades ago make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? If so, wake up and read Mona Charon's thoughtful piece, On apologies, Democrats and conscience. Right on, Mona!

I particularly liked George Neumayr's piece "what iffing" Terri Schiavo's brutal death happened to a member of "Club Gitmo." His musings are found at The American Spectator, but here's a tantalizing morsel:

If Terri Schiavo had been dehydrated to death at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Dick Durbin would be reading her autopsy report from the Senate floor. It would be an occasion for great moral anguish. How did the U.S. sink so low as to adopt such Nazi-like callousness toward disabled prisoners of war? one could imagine him saying. Instead, Democrats -- even as they spent part of the week crassly celebrating, with news of Schiavo's autopsy report in hand, the human rights abuse of euthanasia against the disabled -- are in a moral lather over the paucity of proper air conditioning terrorists receive at Guantanamo Bay.

Paul Johnson's piece, What Europe Really Needs in the OpinionJournal, is essential reading for those who watch Europe. A one time registration may be required, but here is an excerpt of Johnson's piece:

The EU's economic philosophy, insofar as it has one, is epitomized by one word: "convergence." The aim is to make all national economies identical with the perfect model. This, as it turns out, is actually the perfect formula for stagnation. What makes the capitalist system work, what keeps economies dynamic, is precisely nonconformity, the new, the unusual, the eccentric, the egregious, the innovative, springing from the inexhaustible inventiveness of human nature. Capitalism thrives on the absence of rules or the ability to circumvent them. Hence it is not surprising that Europe, which grew rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, before the EU got going, has slowly lost pace since Brussels took over its direction and imposed convergence. It is now stagnant. Growth rates of over 2% are rare, except in Britain, which was Thatcherized in the 1980s and has since followed the American model of free markets. Slow or nil growth, aggravated by the power of the unions, fits well with the Brussels system and imposes further restraints on economic dynamism: Short working hours and huge social security costs that have produced high unemployment, over 10% in France and higher in Germany than at any time since the Great Depression which brought Hitler to power.

It is natural that high and chronic unemployment generates a depressive anger which finds many expressions. One, in Europe today, is anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism. Another is exceptionally low birthrates, lower in Europe than anywhere else in the world except Japan. If present trends continue, the population of Europe (excluding the British Isles) will be less than the United States by midcentury--under 400 million, with the over-65s constituting one-third of that.

The rise of anti-Americanism, a form of irrationalism deliberately whipped up by Messrs. Schroder and Chirac, who believe it wins votes, is particularly tragic, for the early stages of the EU had their roots in admiration of the American way of doing things and gratitude for the manner in which the U.S. had saved Europe first from Nazism, then (under President Harry Truman) from the Soviet Empire--by the Marshall Plan in 1947 and the creation of NATO in 1949.

Europe's founding fathers--Monnet himself, Robert Schumann in France, Alcide de Gasperi in Italy and Konrad Adenauer in Germany--were all fervently pro-American and anxious to make it possible for European populations to enjoy U.S.-style living standards. Adenauer in particular, assisted by his brilliant economics minister Ludwig Erhardt, rebuilt Germany's industry and services, following the freest possible model. This was the origin of the German "economic miracle," in which U.S. ideas played a determining part. The German people flourished as never before in their history, and unemployment was at record low levels. The decline of German growth and the present stagnation date from the point at which her leaders turned away from America and followed the French "social market" model.

Please read the entire piece; it's important, especially in light of the fact that domestic leftists and so-called liberals aspire to the elitist machinations of Europe which result in ever burgeoning bureaucracies and totalitarianism. Just because the socialist ideology has failed wherever it has been tried is no reason for the leftists to abandon it. They will never abandon their failed sacrosanct ideals.

A perfect companion piece to Paul Johnson's, is Robert J. Samuelson's WaPo piece titled, The End of Europe. Again, there are lessons to be learned here about Europe's demise and why it would be foolish to incorporate her failed policy in this country. This is and was the model for John Kerry (and so many others), if you will recall. Check it out.