"Old Europe": Rumsfeld deserves an apology

During the lead up to the Iraq war, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld used the term "Old Europe." Politicians and MSM media on both sides of the Atlantic expressed horror. How could he?

Of course, the term "Old Europe" has been used for decades by those same people and others. How many times did we read that the EU would replace "Old Europe" with "New Europe?"

But those who act on the "Anything to hurt America" principle seized on Rumsfeld's use of a term they themselves had used to pound him and America.

With that in mind, take a look at this paragraph from a June 2 New York Times article about the French and Dutch EU rejection votes:

"Old Europe lacks confidence and is therefore defensive, trying to freeze things rather than look forward, feeling that any change is bad," Mark Leonard, a specialist on European Union affairs at the Center for European Reform, said in a telephone interview. "It's a toxic brew of failure to build support for reform, terrible economic circumstances and elites that are tarnished and shop-soiled."

You can read the entire article here.

Please e-mail if you find anyone who beat on Rumsfeld saying, "Sorry, Mr. Secretary, I shouldn't have beat on you for using a phrase that was in common usage then and now."

I'll post it.