WHICH CONTINENT GOT RID OF IMPERIALISM, FASCISM, AND COMMUNISM?

In an op-ed column in the Los Angeles Times which he called "Battleground Europe," Timothy Garton Ash notes:

To return from the United States to Europe is to travel from a country that thinks it is on the front line of the struggle against jihadist terrorism but is not, to a continent that is on the front line but still has not fully awoken to the fact.

He paints a grim picture:

An invisible front line runs through the quiet streets of many a European city or town where there is a significant Muslim population.

Whether you live in London or Oxford, Berlin or Neu-Ulm, Madrid or Rotterdam, you are on that front line -- much more than you ever were during the Cold War.

This struggle is partly about intelligence and police work to prevent those who have already become fanatical, violent jihadists from blowing us up at St. Pancras or the Gare du Nord. Ordinary non-Muslim Europeans can only do a little to help this work, as well as worrying about the curtailment of civil liberties.

Ordinary, peaceful, law-abiding Muslim Europeans can do a little more. The larger part of this struggle, and the more important in the longer term, is the battle for the hearts and minds of young European Muslims -- usually men -- who are not yet violent jihadists but could become so.

All over the Continent, and around its edges, there are hundreds of thousands of young Muslim men who could be tomorrow's bombers -- or tomorrow's good citizens.

But the grimmest part of his vision is actually what he intends as an encouraging envoi to give the Europeans heart to undertake the grueling and decades-long struggle that confronts them:

If we are calm, clear-sighted and resolute, we will eventually win this struggle and remain free. A continent that has rid itself of the horrors of imperialism, fascism and communism will see off this lesser menace too. But it will take many years, and we had better shape up to it. [UMPH ADDED.]

Which continent is that, Timothy? Which continent rid itself of the horrors of fascism?

Was it the continent comprising Italy and Germany that voted the fascists and nazis into power?

Was it the continent comprising France, that wholeheartedly collaborated with the nazis and fascists? Was it Spain or Portugal with their fascist dictatorships that lasted until the 1970s?

Come off it, Tim. If we had waited for Europe to rid itself of fascism, the EU would be a fascist state (instead of an EUsoviet state.)

Rid itself of communism? And which continent might that be?

Which continent welcomed Pershing missiles with open arms? It wasn't Europe.

Twenty-five percent of Western European voters still vote communist.

If you're counting on Europe to save itself from the "lesser menace" of jihadism, and if you think that jihadism is in fact a "lesser menace" than imperialism, fascism, or communism, you had better count again.

Western Europe was saved from Austrian and German imperialism by the American soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen who rescued democracy's faltering host in the late autumn and early winter of 1918. Europe was saved from fascism and naziism by the American soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen who liberated the continent in WWII. And Europe was saved from communism by Ronald Wilson Reagan's staunch refusal to accommodate the Evil Empire of Bolshevism. Courageous European leaders and followers contributed to all three victories, to be sure, but they could never have won the day without the United States. And they will not win the day, today, without American help.

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: EXACTLY RIGHT, PUNDITARIAN! Europe would be nowhere without the USA and they need us still. Sarkozy knows this - as do the most of Danes and the Brit leadership. But with 25% of the euroweenies still commie and at least 50% infected with postmodernist BS, it's gonna be tough to get the entire continent to WAKE UP before it's too late for a non-violent resolution.