Is It Too Late For Europe?

In the midst of the latest terror attacks, a new meme is circulating that perhaps it is time to be more aggressive in stopping the spread of the relaxed atmosphere that has allowed the rise of radical Islamic terrorists in our neighborhoods and communities. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Pete du Pont laments the lack of will found in continental Europe:

Old Europe may be falling apart before our eyes. This is a suggested by the opposition of Western Europeans to the American military action in Iraq as well as the defeat of the European Union Constitution in France and Holland last spring and the economic decline of European socialist economies. In any case, Old Europe has neither the political will nor the economic strength to combat terrorism. Without the United States, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq would be terrorist-controlled nations. Once again it will be up to America to defeat an assault on Western civilization, just as it was left to the United States to rescue Europe against Nazism and then against the global assualt of communism.

In the Times of London, Michael Portillo says England has been too lax, too:

It is easy to explain how the Londonistan phenomenon (the concentration of Muslim political activists in the capital) has come about. For years foreign governments have complained that dissidents settled in Britain were using the fax and the internet to foment discontent in their countries. Our response has been dilatory. Under our asylum rules we have made no distinction between the innocent victims of persecution and others intent on bringing down states.

AJStrata thinks there's more to it than that:

The liberal-socialist strangle hold on Europe's news media is incredibly strong, and was incredibly wrong. My regular trips there for years never made it less shocking how poorly they understood America because their news was pure propoganda. The news media never interviewed anyone from center right unless they were in a maverick role. The news media never explained the political right's perspectives or arguments - they were simply dismissed without debate.

Indeed, Europe has always had a love affair with the radical. The tactics on display by the Green Party and other European 'progressives' have found a sympathetic reception in the halls of the European elite, including the media. The Left's innate hostility to capitalism has perhaps deadened many to the growing threat from such close proximity.

Yet it is the freedom of the capitalist democracies that remains the only antidote to terror. Freedom - economic, political, journalistic, theological - is the cure for the disease. A free Iraq, a Lebanon free of Syrian domination...these are important steps. It's about far more than missing WMD stockpiles. It's about the survival of Western civilization. Our enemy understands this: look at the ferocity of the suicide bombers. We need to make sure the citizens of the West understand the stakes with equal clarity.