IF SECRET DOCUMENTS WERE DISCOVERED...:

Crisis Imperils Liberal Benefits Long Expected by Europeans (STEVEN ERLANGER, 5/22/10, NY Times)

Europeans have boasted about their social model, with its generous vacations and early retirements, its national health care systems and extensive welfare benefits, contrasting it with the comparative harshness of American capitalism.

Europeans have benefited from low military spending, protected by NATO and the American nuclear umbrella. They have also translated higher taxes into a cradle-to-grave safety net. “The Europe that protects” is a slogan of the European Union.

But all over Europe governments with big budgets, falling tax revenues and aging populations are experiencing rising deficits, with more bad news ahead.

With low growth, low birthrates and longer life expectancies, Europe can no longer afford its comfortable lifestyle, at least not without a period of austerity and significant changes.

...that showed the point of the Marshall Plan and NATO was to destroy Europe so we'd never have to intervene in another war there who would contest their veracity?

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 22, 2010 9:05 PM