Sunday, November 26, 2006
Animals Are Stuck with Differential Birth Rates but Humans Can Do Things
The brilliant and funny Canadian-American (with the upperclass British accent) Mark Steyn has been pushing the "demography is destiny" meme well lately and it makes a lot of sense. However, the insightful curmudgeon Ralph Peters has a great "Hold on there, kitty cat" reminder today in the New York Post about what Europeans can do regarding their fellow man when they no longer regard the fellow as a man.
Here's an elephant in the room example from history just under 70 years ago. The Jewish population in much of Europe dropped by a net 6 million (55%) between November, 1938 and May, 1945; and it had absolutely nothing to do with birth rates. There's a direct precedent for Muslim ethnic cleansing in Srebrenica, a village in Bosnia Herzegovenia, just 11 years ago.
Many people are in hysterics about the minor skirmishes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza and Lebanon (just as a few insightful people were up in arms about the Japanese atrocities in China in 1938, but that early fighting was nothing compared to what was to come beginning on September 1, 1939). Just so, Peters and I, who are trying to be optimistic in the face of an overwhelming sense of history, see a coming storm that will make the current fighting seem like swatting flies, especially compared to the horrors of the new religious wars circa 2020. I hope I'm wrong. (And I was wrong in predicting a nuclear war between America and the CCCP in the 1980s).
I have said over the past 6 years that if I were President I would implement the Fraley Doctrine which would be never to provide military force in Europe again. If the various socialist and semi-socialist nations there get into an internecine trouble again, they're on their own. We're not coming. Whoever the President is in the future, it might be worthwhile to give my idea (and not just mine) a few minutes of consideration. Peters is right about the bad moon rising in Europe.
UPDATE: Because the two columns were next to each other at Real Clear Politics, the connection was obvious. John Hinderaker at Powerline had a good post on these and a strong riposte by Steyn on the nut of the issue. My mind's not changed. The American Revolution was won with the support of only 1/3 of the nation's population and the active opposition of 1/3. Even if only one third of Europe goes anti-Muslim fascist, they could do a lot of damage.
Here's an elephant in the room example from history just under 70 years ago. The Jewish population in much of Europe dropped by a net 6 million (55%) between November, 1938 and May, 1945; and it had absolutely nothing to do with birth rates. There's a direct precedent for Muslim ethnic cleansing in Srebrenica, a village in Bosnia Herzegovenia, just 11 years ago.
Many people are in hysterics about the minor skirmishes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza and Lebanon (just as a few insightful people were up in arms about the Japanese atrocities in China in 1938, but that early fighting was nothing compared to what was to come beginning on September 1, 1939). Just so, Peters and I, who are trying to be optimistic in the face of an overwhelming sense of history, see a coming storm that will make the current fighting seem like swatting flies, especially compared to the horrors of the new religious wars circa 2020. I hope I'm wrong. (And I was wrong in predicting a nuclear war between America and the CCCP in the 1980s).
I have said over the past 6 years that if I were President I would implement the Fraley Doctrine which would be never to provide military force in Europe again. If the various socialist and semi-socialist nations there get into an internecine trouble again, they're on their own. We're not coming. Whoever the President is in the future, it might be worthwhile to give my idea (and not just mine) a few minutes of consideration. Peters is right about the bad moon rising in Europe.
UPDATE: Because the two columns were next to each other at Real Clear Politics, the connection was obvious. John Hinderaker at Powerline had a good post on these and a strong riposte by Steyn on the nut of the issue. My mind's not changed. The American Revolution was won with the support of only 1/3 of the nation's population and the active opposition of 1/3. Even if only one third of Europe goes anti-Muslim fascist, they could do a lot of damage.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 9:01 AM 
