THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

WHEN EUROPE IS MOST SELF-RIGHTEOUS, IT IS TRYING TO SELL SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T WORK | 2001-06-23

Europe is very upset that President Bush refuses to adopt their present "center-left" economic policy. Meanwhile, in the period since Europe adopted that policy, European per capita income has dropped twenty percent relative to the United States.

During that same period, Europe has had a permanent recession, while America has had the greatest boom in its history.

Another thing Europe is preaching at Bush about is America's policy on crime. They say our imprisoning more and more repeat felons is evil. Meanwhile, as you may have guessed, the American crime rate has been going down, while that in Europe, once very low, has skyrocketed.

Then there's the idea of a missile defense system. Most Americans are totally unaware that we have no defense whatsoever if any country sends a missile our way. Europe doesn't even want us even to think about having one.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I am the only person who remembers that this so-called "Star Wars" was the final nail in the coffin of the Soviet Union. Every leftist and every European "ally" BEGGED Reagan to drop his Strategic Defense Initiative. He refused.

Finally, the Soviet Union admitted that "Star Wars" was the final straw that broke its back in the Cold War. They admitted that they could not match the unmatchable technological edge of the United States in space, even with the help of a spy penetration that would have made McCarthy blanch.

That was the reason the USSR threw in the towel on the Cold War.

"Star Wars" worked once, while Europe fought it as frantically as did the USSR. So Europe is once again preaching against it.