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In this mailing:
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.
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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