Did you know that the grinning international press reports on “America’s Humiliation” in Syria? It would make one feel good if this would be no more than hostile propaganda and as such transparently untrue. Alas, in Syria the shoe fits. Putin’s pie has landed on the face of a country run by a retreat-minded executive. Official Washington wonders how to convert the picture of being caught with pants down into a major work of art. Meanwhile the Soviets, excuse the slip, “Russia,” is bombing America’s allies. The solution appears to be obvious — a good reason to exclude it from the options.

Without being a rocket scientist, the “what is to be done” has clear contours. Granted, much earlier a no fly zone should have been imposed over that country. That would have grounded Assad’s planes and improved the situation on the ground. With that rule in effect, Russia would not have provoked a confrontation.

What now? Use the Ukrainian recipe. Provide the Free Syrian Army with the equipment to down a few Russian planes. Follow up by hand wringing. Bemoan an “escalation” over which no one has control. Attribute the hits to the IS. Do not mind if the plea is unconvincing: insolence demonstrates determination.

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Do you know where to get an indestructible cell phone that matches a submarine? Buy a used one from “Syrian” migrants. Their gadgets are the best in the bazaar.

Puzzled? The mass that inundates baffled Europe exploits several myths. One is that the invaders are Syrians that flee a war. The wrong Arabic accents, or having no knowledge of Arabic, reveal that many in the surge use a faked identity to slip into the welfare state.

To gain admission as a Syrian refugee, the identity papers must be destroyed before entering “EU Europe.” A reporter’s account deserves to be repeated here. When he asked from where they came, the group opted for Syria and added that they lack passports.

“How come”?

“Lost at sea.”

“Everybody’s?”

“Yes.”

At that juncture a new group appears. By now, the reporter is suspicious as the boat trip from Turkey to Greece is short. So he asks the new arrivals about their papers. Without exception, these are said to have became the victims of the cruel sea.

You might ask, how does this relate to the cell phones. To the consternation of the poor natives through whose place the tide flows, every migrant carries a cell phone. Betcha, you got it now. The water that destroyed IDs could not harm the phones. This is what makes them into a great investment.

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You might believe that pictures tell the truth. However, they can be made into carriers of lies. A classic of that category is the Vietnamese officer who, during the Tet Offensive — which the Reds lost on the battlefield but won in the field of propaganda — shoots a captured Viet Cong. A few pictorial distortions score presently by presenting a pseudo-reality.

One is the case of the Hungarian camerawoman who in a video brings a migrant carrying a child stumble over her outstretched leg. The same scene filmed from a different angle shows that it did not happen. That is why the man turned on the policeman that tried to stop him.

Equally thought-provoking is a scene that proved the “brutality” of Hungary’s border police. The picture shows police throwing water and food into a throng. It is said to demonstrate that the migrants are treated “like animals.” The facts deflate the tale.

Even Germany with its “culture of welcome” — unrestricted immigration for all — is discovering a disturbing underlying fact. The “Syrian” are not only numerous but also unruly, demanding and difficult to control. The Hungarians who attempted to do what their EU membership demanded, namely to register the entrants, took the first punch of that. Cheered on by the media for resisting, the migrants learned that submitting to any order or complying with any request is unnecessary. In this case, the outnumbered police had attempted to make the crowd line up for the orderly distribution of food. Given the melee, the pressured police resorted to throwing the rations.

It comes to mind that you might have missed the outcry of a leftist member of a German state government. Mr. Buillon told the legislature of the Saarland something he did not know whether it should become public. Having spent time in a reception center, he concluded that the truth is only the full truth. “We have been forced to make negative experiences. Go to the center and see for yourself the demanding attitude with which some formulate their claims to their rights. Just listen how women are insulted. See how food is fought over when it is not ones turn.” (There is no scarcity: all wanting to be first causes fights.) His conclusion: Those that think that integration happens without problems are mistaken. (Only this year the country is taking 800000 migrants. As this is written, Berlin denies that 1.5 m is to be expected.)

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This might be unheard as it is not PC. A migrant protest from a generous northern country: “It is crowded, the food is no good, and I want to leave for a city.” Another evaluation chimes in: The food is bad, “it is for white people.” Another voice from another reception center: “This is not what I came to Germany for.”

Earlier, Duly Noted made a prediction. The profitable use of violence by migrants on their way across Europe to the carelessly created illusion of the land of plenty will lead to frustration. That, in turn, will mutate into violence.

It is beginning to happen. German holding areas are becoming the scenes of fights. A surprise as the migrants are said to be in search for peace and tolerance. So far, the police and the servicing personal are only accidental victims. Regardless of the virtues of tolerant multi-culturalism preached to the indigenous, the German government reacts by separating the migrants by religion and nationality. This fiasco describes the gap between theory and reality.

Having said that, an association occurs. Could it be that the Left’s villain, Premier Orbán, has a point? A few days ago, he said that, seeing the mass of single young males marching, and experiencing their inclination to fight, he is not reminded of victims fleeing violence but of an invading army.

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That reminds one of more plain talk from someone the Left and the media hate, and who is increasingly endorsed by grass-roots opinion.

“For us today, what is at stake is Europe, the lifestyle, European values, the survival or disappearance of European nations, and more precisely, their transformation beyond recognition. Today, the question is not merely in what kind of a Europe we would like to live, but whether everything we understand as Europe will exist at all.”

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Duly Noted holds that the conditions found at some places outside of Europe allow for the substitution of “Europe” by a local term. Consider it as mitigating assigned guilt that the PM’s fence does not close the border hermetically. The original official crossing points are open to be traversed after identification. Critics like to compare “The Fence” to the Iron Curtain. The smear, albeit effective, is unfounded. The “Fence” is to keep the wrong persons out. The iron Curtain kept people in. Keeping folks out was unneeded. Only fools wished to enter the prison of peoples that the Soviets operated.

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Let this end with an observation from the same source. In Orbán’s view, a country that cannot defend its way of life is a country that cannot defend its borders. And an entity that cannot maintain the integrity of its border is no country. Do ponder that judgment for yourself.