Article

2008-03-17 Europe

Czechs at centre-stage as EU troublemaker, US ally

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Posted by Steve White 2008-03-17 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ] Top

#1 Poland and Czechoslovakia...why do those names together ring a bell? Let's not get sucked into Europe any further than we are now.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-03-17 07:07|| 2008-03-17 07:07|| Front Page Top

#2 The Czechs are a principled people. As hardworking as the Germans, but without the superior attitude. I'd much prefer to be connected to the Czech Republic and Poland than to Brussels. The former understand gratitude and fair exchange; they ask only opportunity, not a free ride.

Posted by trailing wife ">trailing wife 2008-03-17 07:46|| 2008-03-17 07:46|| Front Page Top

#3 Any country that goes against the conventional wisdom of the professional bureaucrats is a friend in my book. Poland and the Czechs make some good beer. I'll help stimulate their economies by buying some at the store today.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2008-03-17 07:54|| 2008-03-17 07:54|| Front Page Top

#4 NS, entirely different circumstances.
***
Roma, very musical people, playing the fiddles of victimology rather well. UK was very critical (to put it politely) of the alleged bad treatment of Roma in Czech Republic. Now Roma took it as an invitation and are on the move to greener pastures in UK. Laws of unintended consequences rule supreme and Czechs' natural sense of irony got a boost.
***
Topolanek should know that the State Departmnent is a branch of institutionalized assholery and not take them too seriously. That snipe of his was a low retort. He should not rely on yuro media as his source of information.

Posted by Spike Uniter 2008-03-17 09:08|| 2008-03-17 09:08|| Front Page Top

#5 Now to impose visa requirements on "British", "French" and "German" citizens. Think hard on this you former peoples of Europe. Or get used to sticking your asses in the air and kissing the ground in the direction of Mecca.

Posted by Excalibur 2008-03-17 09:23|| 2008-03-17 09:23|| Front Page Top

#6 The Czechs and Poles are wonderful folks and I wish them the best. But there are three important considerations in real estate, and geopolitics; location, location and location. Both countries are still caught between two historically expansionist major powers. Sure the German Army seems like a unionized welfare program. Now. The Soviet Union didn't look too hot in the 1920's either.

I don't want to get sucked into another European war no matter how endearing one side is versus the other, and I have little doubt that one is coming. We should be extricating all troops from Europe. Period. And we need to send the English a message that they need to decide whether they want to be a province of Europe or a World Power.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-03-17 09:30|| 2008-03-17 09:30|| Front Page Top

#7 It's hard to quantify the feeling of eastern Europeans to the US, but they are very deep.

For all the time the Russian boot was on their back, western Europe was perfectly happy to sip coffee in bistros and enjoy the status quo, ignoring the suffering of their neighbors and equating America and the Soviet Union as equals.

The US, however, let eastern Europe know that it at least hoped they would become free, even though it would be ruinous to directly confront the Soviet Union.

Thing like the Voice of America radio were more precious than gold, and they regularly risked their lives for that lifeline of information. Smuggled bibles, printed in the US, became one of the most prized possessions of many families.

Two generations grew up in that gigantic prison of hopelessness and despair. Not something easily or quickly forgotten.

So while they have to live with the western Europeans, and reach some mutually beneficial agreements with them, they will long remember who their real friends are.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-03-17 10:40|| 2008-03-17 10:40|| Front Page Top

#8 Unless we fail to support them now.

Posted by lotp 2008-03-17 10:52|| 2008-03-17 10:52|| Front Page Top

#9 We just shouldn't let them misunderstand how good a friend we'll be. Nato has done that.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2008-03-17 10:53|| 2008-03-17 10:53|| Front Page Top

#10 I'm in the market for a fiddle of victamolgy. Will pay top dollar, quality varnish a must.

Posted by Zebulon Angavick7428 2008-03-17 14:54|| 2008-03-17 14:54|| Front Page Top

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