A Populistic Account of Europe?

Op-Ed Columnist - Europe’s Minaret Moment - NYTimes.com: "The European elites assumed that the divide between Islam and the West was as antiquated as scimitars and broadswords, and that a liberal, multicultural, post-Christian federation would have no difficulty absorbing new arrivals from more traditional societies."

Sometimes it is difficult getting the feeling of the mood of Europe in faraway Sweden and perhaps a world writer in New York can catch the sentiments more clearly? Europe is much more "the lid on" than the US. Ross Douthat takes the minaret vote of Switzerland to the extreme and paint a tense and gloomy future of Europe. It is along the same lines as that venomous report that predicted that organized crime might take over an East European country that appeared the other day.

One thing that makes me think that he is more right than I originally thought is that NATO so easily raised troops for the fight against Muslim extremism in Afghanistan now recently joining Obama's 33,000 men to AfPak. As a friend of the US, I would have told the Americans that they should let go of 9/11. Al Qaida got you, and I mean got you badly. However, there is no real enemy to revenge on. Saddam Hussein was another matter. He was a liability for the region with his attacks on his neighbors.

Now, the Europeans seem instead to be willing to go to war again with 5,000 to 7,000 men. Are they fighting their own demons? Or do they show solidarity with the American people?