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Gordon Cucullu- Contributor

Former Green Beret lieutenant colonel, Gordon Cucullu is now an editorialist, author and a popular speaker. Born into a military family, he lived and served for more than thirteen years in East Asia, including eight years in Korea. For his Special Forces service in Vietnam he was awarded a Bronze Star, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and the Presidential Unit Commendation. After separation from the Army, he worked on Korea and East Asian affairs at both the Pentagon and Department of State as well as an executive for General Electric in Korea. His first major non-fiction work, Separated at Birth: How North Korea became the Evil Twin, is based in large part on his extensive experience in Korea and East Asia as a governmental insider and businessman. [website] [go to Cucullu index]

What about Europe?
Recognize the enemy…
[Gordon Cucullu] 3/11/05

Watching television reports as the president spoke before European audiences last week I was struck by one thing – maybe it was just me – but President Bush looked bored. Despite all the breathless media commentary about ‘US fence-mending,’ the president looked as if he were going through the motions. He said all the right things and was generous and gracious to his hosts, all the while, quietly reinforcing the key policy points that he made eloquently at both is Inaugural and State of the Union speeches: freedom is a human right and America will help oppressed peoples achieve it. With Europe if possible; without Europe if necessary. He reminded of a championship coach addressing this season’s walk-ons. We’ve shown our mettle. We know we can win. Are you good enough to make the team?

If so, America extends a welcome hand. Look at the positive relationship between the US and the United Kingdom at the moment. Observe the enthusiasm with which the administration responded to the support of New Europe into welcomed those states into the small group of responsible nations. But if you’re not with us, his demeanor seemed to say, we’re not against you; you just can’t be part of the team. And you won’t be part of the team until you change your mind. That is the key point: George W. Bush is certain of his moral ground and intends to hold it, despite the incessant quacking and pecking of the Euro-ducks who huddle together in a timid flock.

Despite the bleating of the anti-Bush media which constantly looks for opportunities to see him upbraided, what one sees instead is confidence. Bush radiates a quiet confidence that comes from having a broad, sweeping vision that others have been too small to contemplate. He initiated action, demanded performance, and achieved results on a magnitude that others are still struggling to absorb even after the fact. What we see in their eyes is not the arrogance and cynicism that characterized the leaders of Old Europe since the September 11 attack. It is desperation borne of the realization that they no longer matter. The sun is setting on Western Europe and they do not know how to deal with this reality.

Continental Europe – specifically France, Belgium, Germany, Scandinavia, and Spain are politically, economically, socially, and especially militarily irrelevant to anyone but themselves. Though the president flatters them by noting that they are all ‘contributing’ to the fight against tyranny and terror, in reality they collectively contribute far less than does Australia, South Korea, or Japan individually. They grudgingly offer up their petty training facilities, trembling in such fear that they dare not leave the comfortable confines of the Continent. They strut and puff with great pretense at being major military powers, but they realize that day has passed as surely as the days of massed armies in splendid uniforms confronting each other on familiar ground, fought over for more than two millennia.

Now, after crushing two brutal dictatorships and intimidating a third to reform, serious military powers snicker behind polite hands at their European counterparts’ pretentious airs. France has increased it’s training commitment to Iraqi security forces from zero to one officer. It’s single aircraft carrier never leaves port. The Scandinavian and Low Countries have unionized their armies into impotence. And Germany’s military is frozen in place by Greens and peace activists. There is energy and growth in New Europe: Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Baltic States, and Ukraine, but elsewhere one sees decay.

Europe’s economy is dwindling. The socialist welfare state has permeated every level of manufacturing to the point that productivity is tanking, growth is stagnate, and investment flees. Unemployment rates are in seriously high double-digits. In society imbued from top to bottom with the religion of the secular nanny state, workers pout if asked to stay beyond the required 35 weekly hours. Vacations are so precious and untouchable that French workers preferred to lounge on the beaches while more than ten thousand of their elderly parents and grandparents died back in the city, untended, in a heat wave. Europe, source in the latter half of the 20th century of egregious human rights violators, has the audacity to sniff disparagingly at anyone who speaks of human dignity and freedom. They should know: for decades they have assiduously traded their freedom for increasing dependency on government. Now that very concept is being undermined and they are frozen into inaction.

Meanwhile the demographics are ruthlessly shaped and altered by muddle-headed immigration policies that encourage millions of Muslims every year to pour into Europe, particularly into France, Spain, the Low Countries, and Germany. Originally brought in to do the manual labor these guest workers stayed, procreated, and brought in relatives from the old countries. The majority of the immigrants were from the lowest strata of society: subsistence farmers, laborers, the unemployed. Ludicrous asylum policies opened the doors for hundreds of thousand more of social miscreants who were considered revolutionaries, malcontents, and even criminals at home.

The yeast that ferments this potentially volatile mix into an explosive brew is Saudi Arabian religious fanaticism. From the outset the Saudis have exported their particularly virulent brand of Islam – wahabbism – to all parts of the world. Conservative estimates are that the Saudis have spent more than $70 billion in what may be the most expensive proselytizing effort in human history. The wahhabist sect of Islam inhabits the fanatical fringe: it calls for jihad – holy war – against infidels defined as Christians, Jews, and – what ought to be most chilling to secular Europeans – atheists and non-believers. Inside Europe Muslims have remained separate, in enclaves that exclude all non-Muslims. They resist assimilation and openly preach a doctrine of conquest. Their vision is an Islamic theocracy that spreads across all of Europe. By sheer demographics alone they are well along in achieving this objective.

It is good that President Bush and his successors have as cordial relationship as possible with Europe. But it is imperative that we as a nation realize, even if the Europeans do not, that today’s Europe and the Continent of tomorrow are not going to be the Europe of the 20th century. Economically Europe has fallen far behind other parts of the world - the US and East Asia especially - and will not catch up. During this century the developed countries of South America will pass Europe as economic powers. Militarily, Europe with the exception barely of the UK, has eschewed military power for social welfare. They made this choice consciously and cynically, knowing that the United States would guarantee their security.

But these social welfare oriented, politically correct policies are responsible for the undermining of Europe internally. In this case the US can do little other than watch and learn. Old Europe especially needs to be the canary in the coal mine for America. The Saudis are here, too, in US mosques and wahhabist schools. We must learn to recognize the reality of our enemies as well as of our friends and be honest enough to discuss facts openly without the stifling blanket of political correctness. Pray for Europe’s survival if you wish, worry about it if you prefer, but let us not rely on them for guidance, support, or moral courage. They are no longer able to provide such things. tRO

Curious about North Korea? Learn more in Gordon’s best-selling book Separated at Birth: How North Korea became the Evil Twin became the Evil Twin, Lyons Press available at bookstores now.

copyright Gordon Cucullu 2005

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