How to Lose a Civilization

After Trump won, there were murmurs in the West that Angela Merkel was the new “leader of the free world”, a title associated with the US. This was such a stupid though that most non-Western people smirked at it, “How many divisions does Merkel command? If she is the leader, Vladimir Putin must be laughing”.

But (lack of) military might aside, does Germany in any way make for a good leader of the West? She certainly has one of the key things needed for the job, namely hypocrisy. After the recent terrorist attack on the St. Petersburg metro, Berlin refused to light up the Brandenburg Gate in the colors of the Russian flag, a gesture they have shown for previous terrorist attacks in France and Britain. Ah yes, it was “gunmen” in Mumbai, but terrorists in Europe. And Russia? Serves them right for interfering in Syria. And Chechnya.

But is just hypocrisy enough for the job? The Americans don’t show any great remorse for their worst acts. Like what they did to the native Indians or the dropping of those nukes on Japan or the napalm bombing of Vietnam. Germany in general does better by showing remorse for its Nazi past.

But then came Merkel who decided to show her remorse for an act against the Jews by opening the floodgates to Muslims! Even worse (for Europe), by opening the gates to Syrians, she forcibly thrust them onto other European nations, most of which had no interest in taking those people in. Today, even a mild country like Sweden is outraged that Muslim schools in Sweden segregate boys from girls.

Throughout history, we’ve seen so many ways in which a civilization falls:

1)      Over time, the entity gets weaker. Or its enemies get stronger.

2)     Betrayal. Like what Mir Jaffer did at the Battle of Plassey.

3)     Deceit. Like what the Greeks did with the Trojan Horse.

But willfully and knowingly opening the gates to a militarily weak enemy that openly declares its hatred for every aspect of what you stand for and believe in? That’s never been known to happen. Until Merkel, that is.

The Russians could never take over Western Europe, despite their overwhelming military superiority over Europe because of the American umbrella. But now, Merkel intends to hand Western Europe to the enemy on a plate without a single shot being fired. And then after that, the Russians could just walk into Western Europe. It might even happen in Putin’s lifetime, if Merkel wins a few more elections!