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!”

Monuments To Freedom? (Obamacare, Marriage Equality & The Culture War)

                The United States is literally being utterly transformed at an unprecedented rate…right before our very eyes. Things that would have been thought impossible- or that weren’t even thought of- only ten, twenty or thirty years ago have come to pass. Nationalized healthcare, gay marriage, gender-neutral bathrooms, nudity and swearing on prime-time network television, pastors and priests threatened for citing passages from the Bible, mandatory coverage of birth-control costs by insurance companies, Sharia law being cited as the basis for court cases in the U.S., Iran obtaining nuclear weapons with the consent- nay, aid- of the U.S., naturalized relations with Cuba (though they changed not at all), strained relations with Israel (though they changed not at all), the legalization of pot, etc., etc., etc. It is literally hard to keep up with the speed, length and breadth of the progressive’s victories.

                The Culture War, the only one that really mattered as it presaged and paved the way for all of the progressive’s other gains on various fronts, is all but over. Conservatives, who emphasized the importance of economic, logical and historical thought and perspective, have been routed. There is no way back, no overcoming this thrashing. Kardashian rump trumps economic theory every time. Lesbians lick logic, video games overwhelm history and politics is porno. Rhetoric is only relevant if it concerns sports. The enforced tolerance of political correctness, with its implicit and explicit threats, always terrorizes and subdues intelligence, independence, skepticism, and sanity, unless these are coupled with absolute courage and selflessness. Good luck with that.

                The Confederate Flag has been banned and the Rainbow Banner is being raised. Students at the University of Texas have let known their desire to have a statue of George Washington removed from campus. What other traditionally American symbols will be similarly banned or replaced? Well, possibly the Stars and Stripes for one. A number of citizens (in San Diego) signed a petition recently to get rid of Old Glory and replace it with a new national flag that includes a pyramid and a rainbow.

                I, for one, believe Mount Rushmore has to go. Not only are there 4 white men on it, but the very rock-face they are carved out of is nearly white. I mean…what the Hell?

                The Statue of Liberty?  “She’s” going to have to be re-made into a gender-questioning or gender-queer or gender-fluid personage who has a torch for freedom… of multi-sexual expression.

                The Washington Monument? That simply can’t stand…unless it is recast as a phallus symbol “sticking up” for the Gay Pride movement.

                President Obama campaigned on a promise of fundamentally transforming America.

                With a year and a half left in his presidency, he has already done so.