(To enlarge, click on pic.)
Update to our posting on German foreign minister Fischer. I realize, the cartoon depicts Annan. Still, his philosophy is that of Fischer...
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The Debate
- "In much of Europe's public debate, the true meaning of human rights has degenerated into a tool that gives anti-Americanism an aura of legitimacy. The real, horrendous human-rights violations in the Middle East, North Korea, China, Cuba, etc., are largely ignored or relegated to news blurs on the back pages. For front-page coverage, you need an American angle." ---The Wall Street Journal
- "I discovered that European social democracy, too, was a kind of fundamentalism, rigid and doctrinaire, yielding what Swedish writer Johan Norberg calls "one-idea states"—nations where an echo chamber of insular elites calls the shots, where monochrome media daily reiterate statist mantras and shut out contrarian views, and where teachers and professors systematically misrepresent the U.S. (millions of Europeans believe that free public schools, unemployment insurance, and pensions are unknown in America). The more I saw of the European elites' chronic distrust of the public, and the public's habitual deference to those elites, the fonder I grew of the nasty, ridiculous rough-and-tumble of American democracy..." ---Bruce Bawer
- "In the European media as well as on the public stage, prizes and publicity go overwhelmingly to Americans who serve as witnesses against their own government and nation. (...) The defense mechanism is simple enough: "After all, they are saying this, too, so how can we be accused of anti-Americanism?" A similar phenomenon attaches itself to Israel, where "post-" or anti-Zionist spokesmen are given top billing in the European media." ---Josef Joffe
- "The point is to be aware that for many of the foreigners issuing what they claim to be "simply constructive criticism", the evidence shows that criticizing America is all they do, criticizing America is all they ever have done, and criticizing America is all they ever will do." ---Erik Svane, Americans Anonymous
- "To get an impression, take a look at David's Medienkritik, a Web log in English dedicated, among other things, to exposing biased reporting on the United States in the German media. Be it stories about the war in Iraq, the conduct of U.S. soldiers abroad, American reservations regarding the Kyoto Protocol and the International Criminal Court or even the Katrina disaster, more often than not the German public is presented with a distorted picture. There are laudable exceptions. But generally the blows are low, and the public is left to form its opinion base on half-truths and false analyses." ---Julian Knapp
- "Negative sentiments and views have been driven not only - or even primarily - by what the United States does, but rather by an animus against what Europeans have believed that America is. While the politics, style, and discourse of the Bush terms - and of President Bush as a person - have undoubtedly exacerbated anti-American sentiment among Europeans and fostered a heretofore unmatched degree of unity between elite and mass opinion in Europe, they are not anti-Americanism's cause. Indeed, a change to a center-left administration in Washington, led by a Democratic president, would not bring about its abatement, let alone its disappearance." ---Andrei Markovits
- "Anti-Americanism is hypocrisy at its finest. You can spend your evening catching the latest episode of "24" and then complain about Guantanamo the next morning. You can claim that the Americans have themselves to blame for terrorism, while at the same time calling for tougher restrictions on Muslim immigration to Germany. You can call the American president a mass murderer and book a flight to New York the next day. You can lament the average American's supposed lack of culture and savvy and meanwhile send off for the documents for the Green Card lottery. Not a day passes in Germany when someone isn't making the wildest claims, hurling the vilest insults or spreading the most outlandish conspiracy theories about the United States. But there's no risk involved and it all serves mainly to boost the German feeling of self-righteousness." ---C.C. Malzahn
- "The protests against nuclear weapons, for instance, concentrated on American weapons. The anti-war rallies were against American-led wars. The anti death penalty campaign focused on Texas. A pattern was emerging and has never seriously been altered. A pattern of willingness to condemn America for the tiniest indiscretion - or to magnify those indiscretions - while leaving the murderers, dictators, and thieves who run other nations oddly untouched." ---Justin Webb
- The fundamental role of anti-Americanism in Europe in general, and particularly among those on the Left, is to absolve themselves of their own moral failings and intellectual errors by heaping them onto the monster scapegoat, the United States of America. For stupidity and bloodshed to vanish from Europe, the U.S. must be identified as the singular threat to democracy (contrary to every lesson of actual history)." ---Jean-François Revel
- "In five years there will be a different President and Iraq will likely be pacified. That would naturally have impacts on the strength of the resentments that have fixed themselves onto certain individuals in the present situation. But beneath the surface smolder the long-burning embers of latent anti-Americanism. It has a long tradition and will remain, also when President Bush is no longer in office and Palestine is peaceful." ---Lutz Erbring
- "A writer for the German weekly Der Spiegel told me during the Iraq debate not to take offense at the crude anti-American covers of the magazine such as the ugly, bearded, drooling Rambo figure it used to show the typical GI in Iraq. 'We're just trying to please our million readers,' he explained." ---Jeff Gedmin
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I'm sure he's still "not confinsst". WHat does he need? A missle landing in his back garden?
Posted by: Joe N. | September 24, 2004 at 02:05 PM
No. No missile, just more money. They're corrupt beyond belief. So much for the UN.
Posted by: Mike H. | September 24, 2004 at 05:14 PM
don´t worry, now it`s getting serious for Iran. Fischer raised the concern-level to "terrible fault",
how he calls Iran`s behavior endangering the eurabian future.
tagesschau.de/aktuell/meldungen/0,1185,OID3644736_REF3,00.html
Posted by: | September 24, 2004 at 11:46 PM
a better question might be are those german parts on that missle?" When are germans going to knock this crap off and come out from the stone age? Is there STILL an un-spoken alliance between german knuckleheads and the islamist regimes? obviously there is and has been for ages.
from deutsch welle-
German Arrested Over Suspected Nuclear Deal
"A German man was arrested on suspicion of arranging the supply of nuclear arms equipment to Iran, federal prosecutors said on Thursday. The man, identified only as Helmut R., who has since been released, is suspected of brokering a deal in January 2003 for the supply of equipment used for handling spent fuel rods and separating plutonium. "These are required parts of a military nuclear program," prosecutors said in a statement. They said that the man's efforts to supply Iran with the equipment led them to believe he was working as a spy against Germany's interests. The 53-year-old man from Friedrichshafen told the Associated Press news agency he hadn't done anything illegal. He said he had informed German officials in advance of the intended sale, but they didn't approve it. In May, a German businessman was jailed for four years for attempting to ship aluminum tubes to North Korea for possible use in its nuclear weapons"
Posted by: Pato | September 25, 2004 at 01:17 AM
"I'm sure he's still "not confinsst". WHat does he need? A missle landing in his back garden?"
I'm just wondering: what's the term for someone who complains about other peoples' accents when they speak foreign languages but who cannot even spell words correctly in his native tongue?
Posted by: tobi | September 25, 2004 at 06:32 AM
Tobi - i think they call his critic a pedantic nit-picker with a poor memory.
Remember Fischer's speech at the UN where he said "zorry! (as if he was sorry) I'm not confintzt!"?
Posted by: Joe N. | September 25, 2004 at 03:33 PM
Seitenlanges Blabla im aktuellen SPIEGEL dazu:
Der Club der Dicken
Er kann träge und zahnlos sein, aber wie die ganze Uno soll auch der Sicherheitsrat schnell und schlagkräftig werden. Wer gibt, wer bekommt, und erhält Deutschland einen ständigen Sitz? Der Kampf um die Reform ist ein Ringen um Geld und Macht.
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/0,1518,319911,00.html
Den Artikel hätte man sich wirklich sparen können. Von denen zu reden, die auch noch 3,- Euro dafür ausgeben, um das Heft zu erwerben, mal ganz zu schweigen.
Posted by: Downer | September 25, 2004 at 04:17 PM
Falscher Thread. Aber es geht ja ohnehin um Annan und Fischer...
Posted by: Downer | September 25, 2004 at 04:18 PM
"WHat does he need? A missle landing in his back garden?"
Fischer or Annan? Annan at least has something at stake. New York is a likely target and Annan is likely to be there if NY becomes a target. Albeit with a helicopter ready to evacuate him if the epicenter is not too close to the Upper East Side.
Fischer is not likely to have anything at stake. Given his history I'm doubtful whether he can or will ever change his position outside a direct, massive attack on Germany akin to what happened on 9/11. Even a nuke blossoming over DC or Tel Aviv wounld't change that for long. Like Le Monde, Fischer would be a 'Jew' until the Israelis obliterated Tehran (about half an hour). Then he'd change to being a Persian.
Posted by: Don | September 25, 2004 at 04:40 PM
Joe, I was referring to your "missle" not Fischer's "confinsst".
But let's leave it at that. I just don't think that having an accent is a something people should be ridiculed for. I have a German accent when I speak English, most Germans have. I have tried to get rid of it but a touch of it remains and probably always will. That being said, I know very few people, who do not have an accent when they speak languages which do not happen to be their mothertongue. Do you? What counts in my opinion is the effort to learn a foreign language, to understand others and make yourself understood.
N.B.: By no means defending Fischer here, just my fellow Dschörmänns, well, basically anyone cursed with a particarly unpleasant accent.
Posted by: Tobi | September 25, 2004 at 06:56 PM
Oops, that should be: "particularly unpleasant"
Posted by: Tobi | September 25, 2004 at 07:00 PM
Tobi - I know what you mean, i'm a lebanese immigrant. Making my english understandable took many years.
I'll stop that kind of taunting when european lefties stop their little fixations with 'Texas as a pustule on the universe', the mangling of north american accents, and the whole cowboy hang-up that quite frankly, is starting to look like a sexual problem.
I'll stop when their left stops aiding and abetting the cruelest and most illiberal hostile faction in existence - the Jihadists.
They march to give emotional support, and they demoralize and confuse the population into a suicidal situation - deconditioning us all believing that it's better to permit the end of your own way of life and not defend your own way of life, instead of ever using force.
They could, once again, with the force of their armchair ideologies bring others into peril.
Posted by: Joe N. | September 25, 2004 at 08:11 PM
Just found this one at lgf. Schroeder is threatening Lybia:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=12812_European_Resolve#comments
I guess Muammar is really, really afraid now.
Posted by: Hartmut | September 25, 2004 at 08:16 PM
all of this over a sticky letter 'i' - sheesh!
Posted by: Joe N. | September 25, 2004 at 08:17 PM
Actually Hartmut - I had this feeling that the SPD was so badly doomed that the Beslan massacre might induce a politically motivated u-turn. The odds are tiny, but it is possible.
Posted by: Joe N. | September 25, 2004 at 08:18 PM
I express solidarity to anyone with an accent..
I am an Ami who lives in Germany and have learned quite a bit of German
but have not lost the accent.
Everyone asks if I am ENglish, but I am honest and say I am an Ami..
my mistake... there is usually only an uncomfortable pause after that, but sometimes I get an earful.
But I refuse to lie..
Posted by: amiexpat | September 25, 2004 at 08:51 PM
@Joe N.: No u-turn, not a bit. Just look at this undemocratic, dirty little charade with Verheugen and Erdogan, to get Turkey into the EU. The SPD will turn if (or as soon as) we are hit by the Islamofascists, and dozens or hundreds of dead germans are slaughtered.
Posted by: Hartmut | September 25, 2004 at 09:09 PM
Uuups - scratch "dead".
Posted by: Hartmut | September 25, 2004 at 09:11 PM
It looks like we all have the walking pneumonia of poor spelling.
If someone could make a scandalous web page or even a leaflet listing a few simple things there would at least be the benchmark of a different weltanschauung.
1. List the 'cardinal virtues' of German society - as in what things do they hold most dearly, besides the welfare net - like tolerance, a 'good society' etc. etc.
2. List the defining principles of the global jihad movement, as well as a laundry list of their hits.
3. put up a message board where people can report the anti-terrorist operations that they see in their locality that go unreported.
Host it abroad. The list will grow, it will either become a scandal, or a source for authorities. Either way, what they are doing will known. Whoever reads it will have to realize that what they think the government is ever so gently doing or not doing is not quite what they think it is. It's a spin-killer that could change the tone of the government's announcements, and bring the public a taste of reality. The rest is up to them and their 'gutmeschliche' judgement.
Just a thought.
Posted by: Joe N. | September 26, 2004 at 05:49 PM