Re: ...Donald Rumsfeld dismissed Germany and France as just the "old Europe," plainly of no concern because of their disobedience. The ?vast numbers of other countries in Europe [are] with the United States,? he assured foreign journalists. These vast numbers are the "new Europe,"...
As you know, I disagree completely with Rumsfeld's labelling:
Message 19727994
Now, the irony --or the pity-- is that most European pundits and observers HAVE FALLEN for Rumsfeld's fraud: even French journalists routinely, shamelessly refer to France, Germany,... as "Old Europe". They somehow repress the obverse truth that France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Britain make up the so-called New Europe if only because of their growing Muslim and non-European minorities. In her previous government (dubbed "Raffarin II"), France had two ministers of Algerian extraction, Islam is already France's second religion (after Roman Catholicism and before Protestantism); Germany harbors 2.5 million Turks;...
Rumsfeld's fraudulent labelling only betrays WASPish America's nostalgia for the Europe of yore... it's likely the same nostalgia most (US) Southerners feel about 1950s America: a lily-white leadership, a conservative, Christian value system, and docile minorities, no Affirmative Action,... the good ol' days, huh?
Gus |
