A DICTATOR FALLS...AND OLD EUROPE MOURNS
by William Grim, Iconoclast Contributing Editor
iconoclast.ca
Munich, Germany -- The sweep of history is defined by grand gestures. The little Japanese diplomat in top hat and morning coat who limped aboard the USS Missouri to sign the instrument of surrender in World War II was dwarfed not only by the size of the ship's 16-inch guns, but also by the physical dimensions of the victorious allies. And when Soviet troops blasted off the swastika from atop Hitler's Chancellery building in Berlin it was the loud last conclusive act to that deadliest of European wars.
But the small gestures are as important, and perhaps even more indicative of public sentiment, than the grand displays when it come to symbolizing the shift from one historical epoch to another.
Just the other day at the Munich Central Train Station I had some time on my hands and decided to watch the news on a big screen overhead TV projector that is located in the station's main concourse. There was a large crowd of at least 50 persons assembled as the TV was showing the latest news about the War in Iraq.
I started up a conversation with a British gentleman and expressed to him my gratitude for Britain's strong support and the bravery and professionalism of her soldiers. An elderly man overheard us talking and asked in broken English is we were American or British. It turned out that the man was an Iraqi exile whose family had been devastated by Saddam's evil regime. When he found out that he was talking with a Brit and a Yank he was effusive in his praise of our two countries.
Then the big screen showed the now iconic footage of a British tank pulling down a giant statue of Saddam in Bosra. And here's the small gesture I was talking about that tells us so much about the present state of the world: An Iraqi, a Brit and a Yank who had been complete strangers until a few minutes before were united in a vicarious brotherhood, celebrating not just victory, but victory over palpable evil. And surrounding us were about 50 persons whose faces displayed disbelief and shock at what they were seeing. Not only was the Coalition shown to be victorious, but the TV was also displaying Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder's worst nightmare: Hundreds of ordinary Iraqi wildly cheering on their British liberators.
A dictator falls...and Old Europe mourns.
The scene I witnessed at the train station says more about the morally feeble condition of Old Europe than all of the pontifications of all of the pundits combined. Old Europeans were actually sad that a vicious dictator was being defeated and that America and her Allies were winning the war.
Déjà vu? Perhaps. Old Europe does have a long-standing love affair with despots and dictators. But to be charitable, I'd say that the Old European gloom and doom has less to do with love for Saddam than it has with the Old European Old Left's hatred of America.
If McDonald's golden arch is the most ubiquitous logo in Old Europe, the image of Che Guevara is a close second. One of the ironies of the so-called "peace" movement in Old Europe is that it is dominated by people who proudly carry banners emblazoned with Guevara's image.
Now, you might well ask, how does Che Guevara, a brutal Stalinist killer, come to symbolize "peace" for the Old Europeans? Just think back to Orwell's famous formulation in 1984: "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength." There you have it. The ultimate triumph of deconstruction.
The Old European Old Left has been pretty effective in appropriating the propaganda techniques perfected by Joseph Goebbels. Anyone who opposes terrorism is labeled a terrorist; anyone who opposes a dictator is labeled a dictator; and anyone who is politically to the right of Che Guevara is labeled a right-wing extremist. And of course, it goes without saying that to Old Europeans, George W. Bush is far worse than Hitler, Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot.
But the Old European Old Left finds itself in the same predicament as Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, the former Iraqi Minister of Information (better known to North Americans as Baghdad Bob). The lies may work for a long time, but when you continue to shout that "the American infidels are nowhere near Bagdad" when American tanks can be seen patrolling in the background, even the most committed leftist ideologue has to wonder if maybe there's something wrong with both the messenger and the message.
Americans are going to have to get used to the fact that no matter how much good we accomplish in the world, or how many people we liberate, we will never enjoy the respect, gratitude, support or even grudging admiration of a large percentage of the citizenry of Old Europe. So be it.
But you almost have to feel sorry for the Old Left of Old Europe. The Soviet Union and her satellites are no more, and communism in Red China and Vietnam is about to disintegrate in a mad dash towards capitalism. Only Cuba, Berkeley (California) and the University of Paris are still incontrovertibly within the Old Leftist camp. The only weapons left in the arsenal of the Old European Old Left are vituperation, character assassination and the propaganda of lies and libels.
So let the Old European Old Left rant on and on. A picture is worth 10,000 rants, especially when the picture is of Iraqis cheering their "infidel" liberators.
William E. Grim is a writer who lives in Germany and is a native of Columbus, Ohio. and you can read more by him at The Official William E. Grim Web Site. |
