Future leaders of Europe

Oliver North has an interesting column today on his recent experience in France while filming a doucmentary on Patton. North had the opportunity to speak with some young, self-styled revolutionaries. These are young adults who are college eductated, participating in the protests/riots in France, and likely future leaders in their home countries (in this case, Germany). Here's a sample of the of what North had to say:

Though hardly a scientific sampling of European public opinion, these students' perspectives on the U.S. role in defeating fascism, communism, in bringing down the wall, of standing up to Islamic terror were both shallow and twisted. According to them, Germany would have rid itself of Hitler without "terror bombing German civilians"; the Americans "created the 'Red-Scare' to divide and punish Germany; the wall would have come down decades earlier but for the presence of U.S. bases in Europe; the Sept. 11 attack was concocted by the Bush administration; German troops should never have been sent to Afghanistan, and -- because this is much on the news here right now -- U.S. troops in Iraq routinely commit atrocities and human-rights violations. They were unaware of this week's forceful presidential speeches, press conference and question/answer sessions -- perhaps understandably, because they have been little covered in European TV and newspapers.

Interestingly, none of them had particularly strong views on the threat posed by radical Islamic terror. Several expressed a belief that Madrid and London were attacked solely because their respective governments supported U.S. policy in Iraq. None of them could explain why there had also been attacks in Bali, the Philippines and Casablanca, Morocco. Nor did any of them perceive that nuclear weapons in Iran were a threat to them -- only to the United States.

North is correct in saying that you can't judge all of Europe's young adults by these six. You can probably just as easily find 6 American college students with equally contorted beliefs. The current student riots in France are indicative that the rot in their colleges may run pretty deep, though.