Charles Krauthammer: 'Decadent' Europe Won't Rise Against Islamists

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer told Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor" on Monday that the United States must lead the effort against radical Islam because nobody else is willing to do so.

Host Bill O'Reilly said that an all-out effort must be waged now before it is too late. He said that if the world had mobilized against Adolf Hitler in 1935 or '36 he could have been crushed.

Krauthammer agreed, but added, "You do not expect a decadent Europe to actually rise up against its enemies. It didn't in the '30s. It's not going to do it today."

The reason the world rose up against the Nazis is that Hitler invaded and conquered all of Europe, Krauthammer said. "While he was rising, while he was threatening, everybody went for appeasement."

O'Reilly suggested a great coalition, in place of NATO, should be used against the Islamic State (ISIS) and against Iran's efforts to build a nuclear weapons program.

"It has been tried, and it has failed," Krauthammer responded. "We actually did try that in Afghanistan."

But as soon as President Barack Obama came into office and let it be known he wanted to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, NATO allies changed their minds.

"Our allies look around and say, 'We're not going to be suckers. We're not going to hang around here. And they're gone. They essentially slipped away," Krauthammer said.

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