NEOCON VICEROY STILL WRONG

by Mark Hackard

L. Paul Bremer, former head of the US Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, popped up for an interview in the Standford Review recently. He had nothing to say about the "bang-up" job he did in managing the occupation of Iraq from 2003-2004. But as a former ambassador to the Netherlands, he did elect to share his wisdom on the subject of Islam in Europe.

Bremer is a Neoconservative, in case his position in Baghdad didn't clue you in. As such, he purports to defend the heritage of the West while maintaining a worldview and positions that only work to undermine it.

"It is a fact of history that Europe is based on Judeo-Christian values. But Europe seems unwilling, or perhaps afraid, to acknowledge this reality. European bureaucrats omitted any reference to it in their draft 'constitution,' reflecting a willful disregard for the continent's intellectual, moral and spiritual roots."

Bremer begins by feigning support for Christianity in Europe with gestures to "Judeo-Christian values" and says that Europeans should acknowledge "the continent's intellectual, moral and spiritual roots."

This is a typical rhetorical device used to identify oneself with Western civilization while not actually advocating any effective policy to curtail the growth of Islam in Europe.

The former viceroy of Iraq states that "Europe faces a demographic time bomb." What measures, then, does he advocate to preserve Europe's traditional religious, cultural and ethnic heritage? Absolutely none.

"As the Muslim populations grow in proportion to overall populations, it is vital that Europe find a way to integrate peaceful Muslims while defeating extremists."

As someone who fully internalizes the liberal Weltanschauung, Bremer could never even conceive of a proactive strategy to end and reverse the flow of Muslim immigration into Europe. Rather, Europeans are required to "integrate" a growing Muslim population, thus ensuring the continued rise of Islamic power in Europe.

Besides, what West does Bremer want to preserve? Not the one whose "heritage" he alludes to, the West of faith, charity and valor. It is the liberal regime founded on the anti-Christian values of the Enlightenment.

"European countries have a large, and in most places, growing Muslim population. The vast majority of these men and women are not terrorists. But as events have shown, there are among them extremists who reject everything the West and Europe stand for-the separation of Church and State, universal suffrage, women's education, free trade unions, a free press. And especially democracy which the extremists such as Al Qaeda define as 'a new religion that must be destroyed by war.'"

Democratic capitalism is the true object of Bremer's devotion, despite his professed Catholicism.

I wrote the following lines about Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, in a piece for Takimag, but they apply just as well to Bremer. His positions "place him in the camp of Neoconservatives such as George Weigel and Michael Novak, [also] Catholics who embrace globalized modernity and advocate armed social engineering abroad to further its spread."

The policies of faux-conservatives are only leading the West further toward dissolution. The sooner they are exposed for what they are, the better the chance there is for traditionalist resurgence.