Before these weapons were shipped to Sudan did they remove the little gold stickers that say, "Made in Iraq"?

Posted by: Hulegu Khan at October 22, 2004 12:14 PM

Talk about exercises in naivete and futility. Syria also happens to be a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but that never stopped them from gassing Darfuri villagers or arresting and torturing dissidents.
These adventures in European dhimmitude blow.

Posted by: Mike at October 22, 2004 12:28 PM

The long run up to the invasion of Iraq would have given Saddam plenty of time to just move his WMD's over the border into Syria.

Posted by: Elephant at October 22, 2004 12:48 PM

Insane, totally insane, an entire continent with a death wish!

I read on another posting someone gave a figure of 40 billion dollars spent by the US on defence for the eu, why? Their biggest threat is their own stupidity, and no amount spent by the US can save them from that!

The euro political class is moving as fast as it can to widen the credibilty gap between itself and the people it governs, and the result can only be breakdown and collapse.

Are you Americans lobbying your representatives demanding they put a stop to subsidising these clowns, especially when one of the points I keep hearing during your present election is about the loss of US jobs, no F******* wonder when the Govt. is throwing this much money down the toilet.

Let the euro clowns pay for their own defence, if they can be bothered, if not, that's their problem. And while you're at it sling the un out and let them set up shop in france, tell them you need the building to house homeless people, a much more deserving cause!

Posted by: saoirse at October 22, 2004 1:30 PM

who is the e.u. anyway? certainly not an organization worthy of praise or serious thought

if bush wins re-election, i'm sure he'll have plenty to say about syria's w.m.d. and the e.u. can whine & moan all day long while equivocating about corruption through oil-for-food

no wonder our ancestors left these craven folks to their dying continent

Posted by: ted at October 22, 2004 3:35 PM

*sarcasm* As long as Syria agrees to use their WMD exclusively on the EU I'm cool with this.

Posted by: Rottweiller at October 22, 2004 4:11 PM

For more on the E.U., read when it comes out, in a few months, Bat Ye'or's "Eurabia." Chapter and verse, of secret covenants secretly arrived at, will be given. What the European leaders, pushed by France, agreed to in the Euro-Arab Dialogue. Who decides what will be taught in universities, in order to bring about greater "appreciation" for Islam. The role of the state media. And so on.

One sign of the times can be seen on a little postcard, with a picture of the Algerian leader of the 19th century Jihad, Abd el-Kader (some of whose men ended up settling in what is now the West Bank and Gaza, and became the ancestors of some of that "ancient Palestinian people" we have heard so much about since they were invented after the Six-Day War). The postcard announces that "le Centre historique des Archives nationales presente l'exposition "Un heros des deux rives: Abd el-Kader, L'homme et sa legende."

The exposition took place "du 26 fevrier au 26 mai 2003." It must have been something. A Muslim warrior, fighting against French Infidels, is now celebrated, in France, at the Musee de l"Histoire de France, Hotel de Soubise, 60, rue des Francs-Bourgeois, as a "hero of the two banks" (of the Mediterranean). This "deux-rives" stuff is now all over the place; it is practically the theme song of that (unintentionally) amusing performer, Dominique de Villepin. He seems not to have noticed, nor have those echoing him, that it is not simply a question of which bank of the Mediterranean -- cette mer blanche du milieu as the Arabs call it -- one happens to be living on, merely a matter of riparian rooms with different views. There is the vast and inescapable matter of history, of Islam versus Christendom, of what people carry around in their heads, of what has formed them, and everything about them, and their ancestors, for generations back. That is why the phrase "un heros des deux rives" is so insidious, so silly, and so telling.

The E.U.'s corruption, its attempt to substitute the ideal of the Big Market even if it means sacrificing national cultures, histories, languages, identities, melted down just as the local ingredients for local products (cheeses, including the parmigiano about which Oriana Fallaci amusingly compalined in one rambling interview, chocolates, etc.) are being sacrificed for the sake of EU-wide standardization, its awful foreign policy based on hatred for America and a transparent desire to throw Israel to the wolves in the hope that that would buy -- well, buy what exactly? Deep and permanent friendship with the Arabs? Or, rather, a contempt, and a triumphalism that can only mean ill for the future of Europe.

These are the sudden quislings of the Eurabian age: Javier Solana, Chris Patten (but oh how tough with Beijing he once pretended to be when he was in Hong Kong), Romano Prodi (one of the dullest people to ever come out of Italy), the entire French delegation, whatever their names, and so many many more. The voters of their own countries cannot touch them, cannot punish them, cannot even inform themselves properly about the secret agreements that Bat Ye'or will expose -- for they were all kept secret for a reason. That RFI, that Le Monde, that the BBC, that so many other opinion-forming organs, are now firmly in the hands of the Islamintern haters of America and Israel -- well, who is going to get rid of John Simpson or Alain Meinargues? Might as well ask who will get rid of Peter Jennings, or of the Canadian Macdonald, or all the other sinister promoters of Jihad, witting and unwitting.

The people of Europe, the peoples of Europe, are on their own. Their own politicians with a few brave exceptions will not articulate the problem. Their press and television are mostly in enemy hands. They have to do what they can. The EU has helped to transform what began as Europe into Occupied Europe. And Occupied Europe, or Eurabia, will need all the help it can get from the United States -- which is why the misallocation of resources (men, money, materiel, attention) in Iraq must end, and everyone turn one's attention to what is happening as Europe islamizes, and its indigenous population watches, helpless and largely without a spokesman, as their own societies are made more unpleasant, expensive, and dangerous for all non-Muslims. It does not have to be. There is still time. There is nothing inevitable about any of this. Europe does not have to become Eurabia. What Bernard Lewis and Bassam Tibi predict -- as others have -- will happen, does not have to happen. It can be avoided. Inform yourself. Inform others. Explain what Islam is all about. Remind people of what the Czechs did with the 3 million Sudeten Germans, in order to protect themselves, in 1946-47. Should not European civilization have at least as much right to protect itself, if for no other reason than out of felt gratitude to those who created, over the millennia, the civilization that its current legatees are in danger of throwing away? They have no right to let that happen. No one is asking them to take Fallujah, for god's sake. No European people are being asked to endure what every Israeli endures, every day. All one is being asked to do is to inform oneself, to articulate the problem, to understand what the belief-system of Islam will mean for science, for art, for freedom. If you seek Islam's monument, for god's sake, just look around.

Posted by: Hugh at October 22, 2004 4:11 PM

An excellent post Hugh, as always.

How will these "endgame democracies", as one journalist terms them, pursue the fantasy of the new eurabian empire should serious disturbances and physical protest from any significant number of their indigenous people arise in the future?

These incompetent governments, who cannot even seriously counter drug and people traffickers, stop the spread of illegally held firearms amongst criminals, who are powerless to actually implement so many of the scores of new laws and rules they pour out day after day, what will they do should this course of action produce civil strife and breakdown?

Does La Belle France really think it is establishing itself as the head of a new empire?, an EU/Arabian power bloc to oppose those awful Anglos?

At what point in the development of this tragedy do the only-recently joined states of eastern europe start to panic? We do indeed live in interesting times.

Posted by: saoirse at October 22, 2004 4:43 PM

I admire Hugh's optimsim in stating that:

"...And Occupied Europe, or Eurabia, will need all the help it can get from the United States -- which is why the misallocation of resources (men, money, materiel, attention) in Iraq must end, and everyone turn one's attention to what is happening as Europe islamizes, and its indigenous population watches, helpless and largely without a spokesman, as their own societies are made more unpleasant, expensive, and dangerous for all non-Muslims.... "

does not have to be. However, the point of the EU was to destroy once and forever, the national character and identities of the individual nations within Europe, was it not? In that case the islamization of Europe is perhaps a very large nail in coffin -- if not a stake in the heart of the old order of things.

To this end, the United States, far from being the saviour from such calmities, is rather a co-author of the Eurabia that is to come.

Add to the list of "... sudden quislings of the Eurabian age: Javier Solana, Chris Patten (but oh how tough with Beijing he once pretended to be when he was in Hong Kong), Romano Prodi (one of the dullest people to ever come out of Italy), the entire French delegation, whatever their names, and so many many more..." the names of Blair, Clinton, Albright, Clark, Staw, Bush I & II, Kerry and more.

These treacherous personalities contributed mightily to the destruction of the old order and are in the process of islamitizing the US itself.

If the Eastern countries see what is happening in the West, and understand it for what it truely is -- they may rue the day of the evil empire's demise and long for the relative comforts of the Soviet days.

Truely, truely sad. It is thanks to the efforts the aforementioned global-elitists hell bent on their own egotistic designs for new empires over which they will hold sway and governance.

Posted by: witness at October 22, 2004 9:20 PM

let's also not forget that the snakes in Brussels sitting in the Eu parliament are the most unenthusiastically elected govt oficials in the whole of the EU. and with good reason. Time EVERY EU member state turned euro-sceptic, eh?
The invitation to Turkey will be a key litmus test - reason over moronity, action over interia, life over death....

keeping fingers crossed on this one...

Posted by: voletti at October 23, 2004 12:10 PM

MR Euro in Room 101: "hey you islamists...what you got in that room...OH MY GOD DON'T USE YOUR WMD ON ME!!!! You can keep you WMD... use it on him...Use it on Uncle Sam....he should be infidel enough for you!!! Blow him up instead!!!"

Islamist: "Excellent..you have just passed our final stage of Islamist indoctrination. Well done Dhmminni!!! BIG ALLAH wil be so pleased. What a nice little sub-human robot/slave you have become. Off you go!!! Now bring in Uncle Sam...lets see how far we can get with the last prisoner."

Posted by: obl r us at October 24, 2004 2:17 AM

re the statement by witness: "To this end, the United States, far from being the saviour from such calmities, is rather a co-author of the Eurabia that is to come."

very insightful. reminds me of Revelation 13

Posted by: ted at October 25, 2004 12:59 AM