Europe A Different View of Euro-Sclerosis

According to the conventional wisdom, Europe has been growing more slowly than the US for 20 years as a result of
structural rigidities. European Union leaders have themselves signed up to reform declarations, starting with one at Lisbon in 2000.
· What's Wrong with Europe's Economy? [The Financial Times]

Europe's Anti-Americanism

Anti-Americanism is spreading to Europeans who oppose a U.S.-attack on Iraq. But Nobel Peace laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, after meeting with President George W. Bush at the White House on Thursday urged Europe to confront Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
· I believe it is the moral duty to intervene when evil has power and uses it [CommonDream/NewsYahoo]

Political Appeasement Metaphor

In the 1930s, Germany had violated many aspects of the Treaty of Versailles, their WWI surrender agreement. They had built a huge, technologically- advanced army and taken over/merged with Austria. In 1938, Adolf Hitler demanded that Germany be given the Sudetenland, big chunk of Czechoslovakia. If Germany got this land, they would stop their efforts for expansion. If they didn't.... In order to prevent war, Britain and France agreed to give the Sudetenland to Germany (Czechoslovakia had no say in the matter). Britain and France cheered that they had achieved peace, and then Hitler conquered the rest of Czechoslovakia. With 60+ years of searing 20-20 hindsight, it is commonly agreed that Appeasement was one of the stupidest foreign policy moves ever. Because all of us 21st century folks know that you shouldn't trust Hitler, Britain and France of the 1930s should also have known not to trust Hitler.
· I don't see how someone who can't read French and German newspapers can possibly be informed on this matter (smile) [StrayBulletins]