Europe's woes: will we be there to help out?

Victor Davis Hanson tells us that the Europeans publicly blame their frustrations on

"crass Americans" - and particularly George Bush. The Iraq war has poisoned the alliance, the Europeans insist. They contend that America's greedy consumers warm the planet, siphon off its oil and trample foreign cultures.

Yet privately, some of them admit that this is a European problem, not an American one. Soon,

[s]ome brave soul soon is going to have to inform the European public: Work much harder and longer for less money; defend the continent on your own; move out of mama's house and start changing diapers - and from now on expect far less from the state.

What will be the response to this "splash of cold water"? Maybe an

European populist will soon appear on the streets in Rome, Berlin or Madrid once again to deceive the public that it was someone else who caused these disappointments?

Victor Davis Hanson ends in a sad note:

We in America should take note of the looming end of this once seemingly endless summer. We've been there, done that with this beloved continent all too many times before.

Read it all in Real Clear Politics.

[Europe] [immigration] [war on terror] [Bush]