Fighting Fit – The Horde Arrives in Europe!
Watching live footage of the “refugees” arriving in
Munich, it is difficult not to be struck by how non refugee-like they look. Many are well shod in expensive-looking western sneakers, wearing Adidas and other
western name-brand clothing, fingering their smart phones. Mostly men of, as they say, fighting age. What few women we do see appear mostly fashionably
dressed with healthy and happy looking babies.
It is de
rigueur at the moment to express unconditional sympathy for those
currently streaming in to Europe from, we are told, mostly Syria, to the point
where it is probably risky to even entertain questions about the “rest of the
story.” Indeed, I have been among the first to write sympathetically about their plight and
to lay the blame on the disastrous US-and-allies foreign policy of regime change.
But it is hard to avoid this strange feeling that on many fronts this story is
not exactly as it is being covered in the western mainstream media.
When one
thinks of desperate refugees seeking a safe exit from a war zone, pictures like this and this and this generally come to mind. This is not to
say that those landing in Germany are not legitimately fleeing a disaster area,
but only that there is something
that seems odd about the whole thing. But of course to suggest such is
to tip-toe into the dangerous waters of “conspiracy.” Nevertheless, let’s delve
into several of the narratives…
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel is risking a shoulder injury so vigorously is she
patting herself on the back over accepting limitless numbers of these people.
As quoted in the NY Times:
Merkel
told the Funke consortium of newspapers that ‘the right to political asylum has no limits on the
number of asylum seekers.’
‘As a
strong, economically healthy country we have the strength to do what is
necessary’ and ensure that every asylum seeker gets a fair hearing, she was
quoted as saying.
Meanwhile
the Hungarian government is being relentlessly demonized for initially refusing
to allow the thousands who landed in Budapest to immediately continue on to
Austria and Germany — even though Hungary held up transportation at the
insistence of the same German government that is now singing its own praises
over its about-face decision to begin accepting them! According to EU
law, the first EU landing country is responsible for registering the
migrants and is forbidden from allowing them transit without proper
authorization. (Who are these
people? Entering the EU UNCHECKED! They could be the murderers and rapists who
have destroyed hundreds of Christian villages in Syria and Iraq.)
Of course
you would never know this if you relied on mainstream media reporting for
information. As this particularly vituperative and mendacious Associated Press article mis-reports:
Hungary’s
nationalist government had spent most of the week trying to force migrants to
report to government-run refugee centers, but thousands refused and demanded
free passage chiefly to Germany.
Nowhere did
these “reporters” bother to mention that Hungary was following German and
Austrian demands as well as EU law. The story line was to demonize Hungary for
“mishandling” the crisis and to sing the praises of Germany and Austria for
welcoming the migrants:
In
Berlin, German officials said they felt it was necessary to take responsibility
given Hungary’s apparent inability to manage the challenge.
Hungary
has long been in the US and EU crosshairs over its prime minister Viktor
Orban’s lack of enthusiasm over ever-increasing
western sanctions on Russia and willingness to participate in Russia’s South
Stream oil pipeline project. The severe black eye Orban is suffering in the
western media over Hungary’s handling of the refugee crisis could spill over
into domestic agitation for a change of government. Already the political
opposition is organizing protests against the Orban
government over its handling of the crisis.
This
should serve as yet another lesson to Hungary of what happens when it follows
the dictates of Berlin and Brussels. Imagine the humiliation felt by elected
Prime Minister Viktor Orban when the unelected president of the European
Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, announced his arrival at the Eastern
Partnership summit in Riga, Latvia this year by laughing that “the dictator is coming.”
Juncker then raised a hand in what almost looked like a Nazi salute, said
“hello dictator” to Orban, and slapped him in the face in front of all the
other EU leaders. Humiliation.
One might
have thought 40 years of following the dictates of Moscow would have instilled
a bit more independent spirit into the Hungarian political class.
Meanwhile,
well-dressed “refugees” are pouring into a Germany no-doubt still struggling
with the burden of its history and all-too-eager to come out of a summer of
crises and scandals (Greece, etc.) smelling like a rose. The media line is set
and is not to be challenged: poor refugees poured into Europe because the west
failed to “do something” about Syria, evil Hungary prevented them from escaping
to the good life in Austria and Germany, and, finally, Austria and Germany in
their great magnanimity opened their doors and pocketbooks to rescue humanity.
Prediction: The anti-Assad narrative will increase
as the media blames him for the refugee crisis (even though most were actually
fleeing ISIS) and
without outside interference (à laRussian efforts to forestall US and UK
bombs in 2013), we may well soon see a direct western military intervention in
Syria. But that may be too much conspiracy for those limited to reading
Associated Press and NY Times coverage…