Let freedom ring!
As our nation gets ready to celebrate its independence day on July 4, we can also rejoice that the country from which we declared independence in 1776 has finally thrown off its yoke of slavery from the over-regulation and, frankly, stupidity of the other members of the European Union. On June 24, 2016, the people of Great Britain voted to exit from this international body, reasserting her sovereignty.
I have to confess. I am and will always be a Europhile. European civilization, along with our Judeo-Christian roots, are the cornerstone of our common law and culture, notwithstanding that President Barack Hussein Obama continues to promote his Muslim and African heritage, and sometimes even Shariah law, as more important if not supreme.
Thus, it is no coincidence that in the early part of my adult life, as I mentioned in an earlier column, European politics was one of my majors at Duke University, along with French. I speak that language and also Italian. (Some people think I even speak English.)
During college, in my junior year, I studied at the Universite d'Aix-Marseille and spent the summer of my first year in law school at Emory University taking courses in Brussels, Belgium, at L'Institut des Etudes Europeenes in what then was called the European Community (EC). Later, after I graduated and spent some years in the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, I took off again to Brussels and labored in the EC's Competition Directorate as a stagiare. At the time and for many years later, I believed in European integration, not just to further free trade and economic prosperity, but also to bind the nations of Europe together to avoid further wars. I was an international lawyer who loved continental Europe as my second professional home.
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Indeed, it was Medal of Freedom Award winner and Frenchman Jean Monnet who first conceived of European integration. Born in Cognac, France, in 1888, he was drunk with the concept and mission of uniting Europe. He thus, post-World War II, conceived of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the precursor to the EC and now the European Union (EU). The ECSC was designed to allow France to have access to and exploit the vital coal mining areas of pre-war Germany, the Ruhr and the Saar, in order to financially recover from World War II. Later, on May 9, 1950, the ECSC morphed into the EC, later still to become the EU, composed of 28 nations.
Monnet and his later partner in European integration, another iconic Frenchman, Robert Schuman, were visionaries, but their vision likely came to a crashing end last Friday when the British people decided to exit. Indeed, the Brits had initially refused to join the ECSC after World War II on similar concerns about their sovereignty, but later relented when it appeared that the EC was the ticket to economic success. But years later, after joining the EC, the reasons for this British Declaration of Independence are simple and draw parallels with our own Declaration on July 4, 1776. They simply could not take the heavy-handed governance of their largely socialist European partners any longer – just as the colonies could no longer stand the economic, social and legal oppression of King George III. And it is not just the stifling over-regulation of the EU that eventually broke the "Arabic loving camel's back," but ironically the thought that Muslim immigrant refugees from war-torn Syria and other terrorist hotspots, once inside the EU, could freely travel to the British isles and wreak terrorist havoc on the populace, as they have recently in France and Germany and other European nations.
In suicidal fashion, the continental members of the EU have ignorantly allowed a flood of Muslims across their borders, so much so that in many parts of Europe the demographics more closely resemble Damascus, Kabul or Baghdad. This onslaught was unnerving to the British people, who for centuries felt protected by the British Channel from the likes of Hitler and other despots. While London has a huge Muslim population, much to the regret of most Brits, the rest of the country is less so populated. The British masses must have seen the writing on the wall; they did not want to become greater London, replete with a two-faced and compromised Muslim mayor of their own some day. Put simply, Islamic culture and law was seen as incompatible with British values and the risk of terrorist attacks too great to succumb to the stupid "death wish" of the other members of the EU. These other members – principally Germany, France and Italy – have sowed the seeds of their own eventual destruction at the hands of the Islamic barbarians who have freely been permitted, for naïve and bleeding-heart leftist reasons, to enter the "Gates of Rome."
The EU itself is on an eventual downward spiral if not collapse, even if its remaining 27 member states have been given a stark wake-up call to now wall off more Muslim immigration and to deregulate their economies. And, while the American and other stock markets have crashed short term in recent days since Brexit, as an international trade lawyer, in addition to my crime-fighting ways, I confidently believe that the economic fallout in the middle and long term will not be great. Britain always had kept some autonomy from Brussels and had wisely retained its own currency, refusing to give in to the euro. And, world markets can adjust to a free Britain. To sell their products in the EU – what is left of it – Britain will have to adhere to product and other standards in any event. The leftist doomsayers in the media have little credibility.
Finally, in passing, let us all take off our hats to defeated British Conservative Party Prime Minister David Cameron. As PM he fiercely supported Britain staying in the EU, and when he lost, with dignity and love of his country, he resigned with high class. When has an American president, particularly the current low-class occupant of the White House, been so kind to his people, or for that matter so patriotic. Save for President Richard Nixon, who resigned over Watergate, no American leader has ever been removed from office, only to linger on for his entire term, causing more damage to the nation.
Perhaps this July 4 we can learn something from the British who 240 years ago we rightfully parted ways with in the name of freedom. Now, they have finally joined us. Let us rejoice, and let freedom ring!
Media wishing to interview Larry Klayman, please contact [email protected].
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