America Alone - Comments

Have been reading America Alone by Mark Steyn and can say that the book is a "must read" for several reasons. I am one of the lone 173,000 folks who subscribe to the National Review. As stated earlier, I like actually holding newspapers, magazines, and books. Gives me a great feel of closeness to the writer and allows me to ponder from time to time the words on the printed page. Hardly a paragraph of the book goes by without having a note-worthy quotation in it:

This book is about the ...larger forces at play in the developed world that have left Europe too enfeebled to resist its remorseless transformation into Eurabis and that call into question the future of much of the rest of the world, including the United States, Canada, and beyond. The key factors are:

• Demographic decline
• The unsustainability of the advanced Western social-democratic state (read welfare state)
• Civilization exhaustion (pp.xv-xvi)

To Americans, it doesn't always seem obvious that there's any connection between the "war on terror" and the so-called "pocketbook issues" of domestic politics. But there is a correlation between the structural weaknesses of the social-democratic state and the rise of globalized Islam. (p.xx) In their (the Left's) prioritization of "a woman's right to choose," feminists have helped ensure that European women will end their days in a culture that doesn't accord women the right to choose anything. Non-Muslim females in heavily Muslim neighborhoods in France now wear headscarves while out on the streets. (p. 16) It will be Russia's fate to have large chunks of its turf annexed by the Islamic world, and much of what's left fall to the Chinese. (p. 31)

Further, Steyn points out that Russia had 148 million people in 1992. It is projected that the Russian population will fall below 130 million by 2015... (p. 27) He even further posits that perhaps the US should negotiate to "buy" Siberia. Considering my view that the US and Russia should be closer allies, that does not appear to be possible just because Russia is in its death throes and its arsenal of nuclear weapons could easily transfer to entities who wish to do us ill. The world is in a geopolitical shift and the West or what remains of it, including some of the US politicians on the Left, need to realize that they won't want to be wearing headscarves, dethroned, and have to have a male relative accompany them out on their shopping jaunts. I read somewhere that many of the Saudi wealthy love to come to America because even the women can escape some of the restrictions placed upon them under Wahabbism. Perhaps, but what happens should the dream of the mullahs be realized and Islamification overcomes the United States? No shopping sprees then. While Muslims everywhere tend to identify themselves by their political/pseudo-religion as Muslims first, last, and always, my question is: once you've Islamicized the West, where will you go for fun? It is no accident that Islam stunts creativity and intellectual pursuit as well as relegating the individual to the will of the group/tribe. One more troubling thing about Russia, 70% of pregnancies are terminated and Russia has the fastest-growing rate of HIV infection in the world. (p. 28) Back to Europe for a moment. Instead of the colonial powers of yore pollenating the colonized lands with the ideals of equality among men, the once colonial powers are (largely due to "white guilt" and the sell-out through the EU and the UN) being colonized by their "former subjects" and the result will be devastating. One question for the aging Europeans who are quite happy with the welfare state they have created for themselves - how long do you think the Islamists will support you? As Steyn comments:

Europe, like Japan, has catastrophic birth rates and a swollen pampered elderly class determined to live in defiance of economic reality. But the difference is that on the Continent the successor population is already in place and the only question is how bloody the transfer of real estate will be. (p.32)

Euthanasia anyone? Remember, what you think is a good idea when you are young or middle-aged might not seem so promising when you are older and not ready to go quietly into that good night. What happens when the state (Islamic) decides that supporting you, old, worn out, and non-Muslim just isn't cost effective? Maybe Mark Steyn's book won't be a best-seller as the lady at the bookstore states but then maybe it should be. And kudos to whomever did the cover - a globe with the flag of the United States of America (to be politically correct now that being American is seen as hemispheric) over the US and the flag of Islam over the rest. Personally, I don't want America to be alone and I know the like-minded folks in Australia, Denmark, Italy, and most of the NATO nations as well as the, what I would call, newly freed states in the former Eastern European "block" don't want America to be alone. It's just how do we give the death-knell to "political correctness" (censorship) and stand up for our nations, our way of life, our children and grandchildren - and how do we do it now? And as I've said in other posts, I don't want to see Notre Dame become a mosque nor the gods and goddesses of Italy and Greece smashed to smithereens as were the Buddhists statues by the Taliban. So, will America be alone? I guess the citizens of the new "West" will decide that...