Monday, November 21, 2016

Donald Trump and the Return of European Anti-Americanism

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Donald Trump and the Return of European Anti-Americanism

by Soeren Kern  •  November 21, 2016 at 5:00 am
  • European criticism of Trump goes far beyond a simple displeasure with the man who will be the next president. The condemnation reveals a deep-seated contempt for the United States, and for American voters who democratically elected a candidate committed to restoring American economic and military strength.
  • The primary cause of the global disorder is the lack of American leadership at home and abroad. A series of feckless decisions by Obama to reduce American military influence abroad have created geopolitical power vacuums that are being filled by countries and ideologies that are innately hostile to Western interests and values.
  • For the past seven decades, the U.S. has spent millions of dollars annually to guarantee German security, although Germany steadfastly refuses to honor a NATO pledge to spend 2% of GDP on defense spending. Germans are now offended that Trump is asking them to pay their fair share for their own defense.
  • Although President Obama's foreign policy missteps have made Europe much less safe than it was eight years ago, European elites have overlooked Obama's mistakes because he is a "globalist" who seems to favor recreating the U.S. in the European image. Trump, by contrast, is a nationalist who wants to rebuild the U.S. in the American, not the European, image.
  • European anti-Americanism is certain to escalate in the years ahead, not because of Trump or his policies, but because "globalists" appear desperate to save the failing European Union, an untransparent, unaccountable, anti-democratic, sovereignty-grabbing alternative to the nation state.
In Germany, Der Spiegel, one of the largest-circulation publications in Europe, published a cover, after Donald Trump's election victory, with an image of a giant meteor in the shape of Trump's head hurtling towards the earth. The headline reads: "The End of the World (As We Know It)".
European anti-Americanism — which was on the wane during the presidency of Barack Obama, who steered the United States on a course of globalism rather than nationalism — is back with a vengeance.
Europe's media establishment has greeted Donald Trump's election victory with a vitriol not seen since the George W. Bush presidency, when anti-Americanism in Europe was at fever pitch.
Since the American election on November 9, European television, radio and print media have produced an avalanche of negative stories, editorials and commentary that seethe with rage over the outcome of the vote.
European criticism of Trump goes far beyond a simple displeasure with the man who will be the next president. The condemnation reveals a deep-seated contempt for the United States, and for American voters who democratically elected a candidate committed to restoring American economic and military strength.

Turkey: Lies, Cheap Lies and Cheaper Lies

by Burak Bekdil  •  November 21, 2016 at 4:30 am
  • In President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's view, Belarus is decent and peaceful, but Western Europe is not. Merely because Belarus's dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, agreed to open a mosque to lure some Turkish investment.
  • Back in Turkey, things look very Belarusian -- even worse -- rather than Western European, a culture Erdogan despises.
  • President Erdogan's crackdown on dissent goes at full speed. Asli Erdogan, a peace activist and novelist, worked for Ozgur Gundem, a pro-Kurdish newspaper. She has remained in prison since her August arrest. The prosecutors demand an aggravated life sentence plus 17.5 years in jail for her. How did Asli Erdogan, the novelist, "support terror"? This is from the indictment: "... in an understanding of a novelist [the accused] portrayed terrorists as citizens in her columns."
  • "In the history of the program, there has never been such an extraordinary situation where I think we can say that a democracy is threatening to turn itself into a dictatorship." — Frank Schwabe, German Social Democratic lawmaker and human rights expert.
  • Europe's unpleasant game with Turkey should end at once, with Brussels and Ankara admitting that the planned marriage was an awfully bad idea from the beginning.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk on November 11, 2016. (Image source: TRT Haber video screenshot)
Reading his public speeches, one may think that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan must be joking; that he is a celebrity stand-up comedian, the best in his profession. In reality, he is not joking. He believes in what he says. And he does not want to make people laugh. He is just an Islamist strongman.
Visiting Minsk, the capital of Belarus, in the first week of November for the opening of a mosque in a dictatorial country where there are 100,000 Muslims, Erdogan accused Western Europe for "intolerance that spreads like the plague."
Erdogan described Belarus, which Western countries describe as a dictatorship, as "a country in which people with different roots live in peace." In Erdogan's view Belarus is decent and peaceful, but Western Europe is not. Merely because Belarus's dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, agreed to open a mosque to lure some Turkish investment.

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