Europe In The Balance, On The Brink

                The dwindling U.S. military contingent in Europe has been forced to borrow British helicopters and conduct training exercises with equipment loaned by other NATO members due to budget cutbacks, the Telegraph (of London) reported recently.

                Incredibly, America no longer has a single tank in Europe, while the number of U.S. troops stationed there has decreased by more than a third just since 2012. Moreover, the article went on to state that many of the weapons used for NATO exercises must now be rotated between bases in the U.S. and in Europe.

                The Pentagon has been hamstrung by steep budget cuts, particularly in the last few years of the second Obama administration. This, combined with the fact that what resources are available have been increasingly sent elsewhere, to places like the Middle East and Asia, has led to a truncated and increasingly impotent American military presence on the Continent.

                Unfortunately, yet predictably, the American retrenchment has been met with growing Russian aggression.

                Lt. General Ben Hodges, Commanding General of American forces in Europe, told the Telegraph that America no longer has the “intelligence capacity to do what we need to do” and that, as a result, has been surprised by Russia’s actions in the Ukraine and Syria.

                With a downtrodden, disheveled America now aimlessly wandering around Europe asking “Buddy, can you spare a helicopter?” and hundreds of thousands of immigrants pouring across European borders from the Middle East and Africa,  including untold numbers of potential terrorists,  it is well past time for the Continent to wake the hell up and save its own self.

                I, for the most part, love “Europe” and its member countries. Americans and Europeans have long shared a common ancestry and a common enemy. Many of us have fought and died together- several times. But it is long past time for the nations of the European Union to take back more responsibility for their own defense. In fact, there is precious little time left for them to do so. Russia is re-emerging as a danger at the same time as several new existential threats arise.                                                                                                    The aging of the populace is a serious threat in and of itself, but Europe cannot possibly survive the continued onslaught of Muslim immigrants. Even if this doesn’t lead to many more sleeper cells embedded on the Continent and vastly more terror attacks in the future, it will still be the end of Europe and its storied history in advancing the plight of mankind. The skyrocketing numbers of Muslims, disenfranchised or not, with their much, much higher birth/fertility rates will eventually simply subsume existing cultures.

                Western nations have bent over backward to accommodate- and not offend- Muslim minorities.  In many cases Western societies have changed their behavior in order to avoid appearing rigid or superior. What will happen to these nations when Muslims are the majorities?  Anyone who has read the Koran and knows even a little about Sharia law understands that it is utterly and absolutely incompatible with a free and open society. It pains me to the core to say this, but it is a simple fact and the defining issue of our time.

                The countries that brought the world the Enlightenment, the Magna Carta, the Sistine Chapel, Beethoven and the Louvre- and discovered America- will simply and tragically be devoured.  Ironically, both historic Christendom and modern secular Europe will be eviscerated if they cannot find the will to defend themselves.

                Toughen up, Europe!  Just because some holier-than-thou, political-correctness-besotted pseudo- academic calls you a racist or a bigot doesn’t mean you are one.

                And that is the biggest threat to your continued existence: progressive “liberal” politicians in power in your countries that will not tolerate views that differ from their own, even as they tolerate the decline and fall of the countries they lead. That is another commonality between America and Europe. We now share that threat, as well.

                Rise up, Europe. Remember this quote from one of your finest leaders. Tell your modern day appeasers, “You have sat here too long for any good you may be doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you! In the name of God, go!”