A DAY TO CELEBRATE

Today is November 9^th.  It is a very special day in the history of the world.  No, not because it's my birthday.  Because on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell.  Today is World Freedom Day.

It seems so long ago, doesn't it?  Yet for anyone who isn't still a kid,  the fear of the Soviet Union, the tyranny and genocidal oppression inflicted by the Soviets upon so much of the world, epitomized by the Berlin Wall, is what we grew up with.  Hardly anyone could even imagine it going away.

In February 1989, I had a pizza in Georgetown (that's in DC) with two newly-elected Congressmen, Chris Cox and Dana Rohrabacher, and a White House National Security Council Advisor to the President, Bob Riley.  The Soviets were retreating from Afghanistan and I said the Berlin Wall would soon be falling.

Riley looked at me like I was nuts.  We got into this big argument.  Finally I stuck out my hand and said, "Bob, $100 says the Wall will be down in …" I hesitated for a picosecond as I wanted to say less than a year but I realized that Riley would have thought me completely insane, so I said… "less than five years."

One year, five years, no difference, he still thought I was delusionary.  "I'm not going to take your money, Jack," he said, refusing to take my hand.  I kept it out.  "I'm serious, Bob.  One hundred dollars."  Very reluctantly, he took my hand, saying, "Bad bet, Jack."

On November 10^th, Riley called me up to say, "Hey, Jack, just want you to know I have my checkbook ready – though really man, five years is one thing, but nine months is just ridiculous."

In March of 1989, I spoke to the "Stanton Group,"  a weekly meeting of conservative leaders, Congressional and White House Staffers, and other key Washington players organized by Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation.

I described the Soviet Union and its Empire as "brittle."  A brittle structure, I explained, "can remain unyielding and rigidly unchanging – but put the right stress on it and it shatters.  This happens fast.  The Soviet Union will not slowly erode and crumble.  One moment it will look to everyone like it is impregnable.  The next moment it will be in pieces.  It is the speed with which this will happen that is going to stun us all."

Everyone but Paul thought I had been smoking something illegal.

In May of 1989, I gave a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington entitled, "The Coming Collapse of the Soviet Empire."  When I predicted the Berlin Wall would soon fall, the audience – a conservative fire-breathing anti-Communist audience – they laughed.

I smiled.  "Laugh all you want," I told them.  "All I ask is that you remember that on this day I said this."

I'm recalling this history because it comes to mind now that there is a new inevitable doom engulfing Europe.  Like the Soviet Union, it can't be resisted, Europe's fate is sealed, blah, blah, blah.  This is, of course, the inevitable transformation of Europe into Eurabia, the inescapable submission of Europe to Islam.

The problem is serious.  The Soviet threat was very, very real, and so is the Islamic.  But problems are not important.  Only solutions to them are.  By focusing on the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the Soviet Communists, we were able to defeat them.  We can do the same with the Islamic Fascists.

Some of the best minds around, like Mark Steyn, have given up on Europe.  He's even written a book about it, America Alone.  But it turns out that lots of Europeans are refusing to submit to the Islamization of their continent and civilization.

In the coming weeks, To The Point is going to be focusing upon them.  As an example for now, take a look at the Gates of Vienna website based in Stockholm, Sweden.  Check out their articles like "Western Feminism and the Need for Submission," or their characterization of Bush's firing of Rumsfeld:  "How lick-spittle can you get, Mr. Bush?"

Or this, which they intend to proudly sell as a button or t-shirt:

So take a break from the doom-and-gloom of November 7 to celebrate what was achieved on this day 17 years ago, when the world freed itself from Soviet Communism.  The days are not that far off when the world will free itself from Islamo-Fascism, and America will free itself from the pathologies of the Hate America Left.