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European nations have imposed unreasonable restraints on their forces in Afghanistan for fear of adverse public reaction to casualties. Earlier this week, France announced that it no longer supports sanctions against Iran for its nuclear development programme. Germany may follow.
European leaders pounced on Pope Benedict XVI for daring to suggest a connection between Islam and violence. A British cabinet minister said that the Pope should forever hold his peace because Christians were violent during the Crusades.
For Times of London columnist Gerard Baker, these events show that Europe’s moral crisis is escalating.
Opposing the war in Iraq was one thing, defensible in the light of events. But opting out of a serious fight against the Taleban, sabotaging efforts to get Iran off its path towards nuclear status, pre-emptively cringing to Muslim intolerance of free speech and criticism, all suggest something quite different.
They imply a slow but insistent collapse of the European will, the steady attrition of the self-preservation instinct. Its effects can be seen not only in the political field, but in other ways — the startling decline of birth rates across the continent that represent a sort of self-inflicted genocide; the refusal to confront the harsh realities of a global economy.
Europe is crumbling because it no longer cares to defend itself.
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