Lexington: Against anti-Europeanism

摘要

April 26th found the Oxford Union debating the motion that "This House regrets the founding of the United States of America". A silly motion supported by unrepresentative people: the proponents were to include a member of the Communist Party and a member of the Islamist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir. But anti-Americans do not possess a monopoly on idiocy. You don't have to spend much time with American conservatives to find them discussing the coming collapse of Europe, sometimes with glee. One of the opponents of the Oxford motion, Jonah Goldberg, did much to popularise "The Simpsons'" labelling of the French as "cheese-eating surrender-monkeys" in the run-up to the Iraq war.