Are you also Neo-Conned?
Autor: Michal Semín
23.7.2008
I cannot imagine a serious discussion about the war in Iraq and its
ideological background
without reading first the two impressive volumes published by Light in the
Darkness
Publications (a new imprint of IHS Press), entitled Neo-CONNED! (Just War
Principles: A
Condemnation of War in Iraq) and Neo-CONNED! Again (Hypocrisy, Lawlessness
and the Rape of
Iraq). They comprise of a dozens of articles, written by virtually a
“Who’s Who” of the
anti-war camp.
This alone would be a sufficient reason for purchasing the books and
digesting the arguments
conveyed against the hubristic policies of contem****ary American political
elites. But there is
something very special about this impressive collection of writings which
makes it even more
im****tant: it provides a tool for introducing the readers outside of the
Church to Her
teachings just war and just foreign policy, based on Revelation, sacred
Tradition, and the
Natural Law.
It is also, however, im****tant for the Catholic opposition to this fateful
war to read and
understand the concerns of the secular front, which is wrong in many
respects, but right in
terms of its judgment upon this particular enterprise. Has there been a
better chance in the
recent past for us, traditional Catholics, to engage in a publicly
acknowledged debate as the
present one on the adventure in Middle East? These books are going to be
widely read by minds
detached from the graces of Faith, and we can only pray that this occasion
is going to trigger
their interest in looking for more answers to today’s hot social issues.
Just imagine all the secular opponents of the war contemplating the
well-reasoned (and thus
able-to-be-grasped-by-anyone-with-an-open-mind)contribution of Fr. Juan
Carlos Iscara, the
professor of history from Winona (the SSPX priestly seminary); the
theological studies on war
of Alfredo Cardinal Ottaviani and Prof. Romano Amerio (the author of the
justifiably famous
analyses of the postconciliar detour from clear Catholic thought Iota
Unum); and the historical
review of Prof. William Cavanaugh, which examines the history of the
Church’s teaching and
practice on the authority of the hierarchy in matters of war and peace!
With all due respect to
my beloved contributors to The Remnant, Catholic Family News, and The
Angelus,cannot Prof. John
Rao and Dr. Peter Chojnowski hope for and expect a better exposure of
their solid and
traditionally Catholic approach to the morality of modern warfare beyond
the boundaries of our
numerically small camp, without selling away on the matters of Faith and
morals?
It is good to see in one publication authors from the Catholic traditional
press with the
publishers of conservative periodicals (Thomas Fleming from Chronicles, E.
Michael Jones from
Culture Wars, and Paul Likoudis from The Wanderer) agreeing at least on
something! This is more
im****tant than anything. For too long people of good will have been
fighting each other
instead of fighting the enemy. The enemy uses our infighting to move
toward his ultimate goal,
as Solange Hertz so aptly puts it in the last five words of her article
entitled “Global
Democracy and the Rise of the King of Darkness”: to get rid of God.
Each contribution is preceded with a one-page introduction by the editors,
which is very
helpful for getting a first grasp of the topics discussed and the context
in which the
particular analyst perceives the issue of war and the ideology from which
that perception
stems. Not by the chance are the books titled Neo-CONNED!. As every reader
of The Remnant knows
by now, American foreign policy was hijacked by a group called
neoconservatives. There is
nothing conservative about them (Paul Gottfried tackles this aspect of
things in his piece in
the first volume), as is pretty clear from the ideological layout of the
neocon vision, issued
by a frequent contributor to the National Review,Michael Ledeen:
"Creative destruction is our middle name, both within our own society and
abroad. We tear down
the old order every day, from business to science, literature, art,
architecture, and cinema to
politics and the law. Our enemies have always hated this whirlwind of
energy and creativity,
which menaces their traditions (whatever they may be) and shames them for
their inability to
keep pace. Seeing America undo traditional societies, they fear us, for
they do not wish to be
undone. They cannot feel secure so long as we are there, for our very
existence—our existence,
not our politics—threatens their legitimacy. They must attack us in order
to survive, just as
we must destroy them to advance our historic mission."
For a reader with even a remnant of Catholic sensibility, this reads as
being part more of Alta
Vendita than a conservative foreign policy grounded in the Christian
tradition of just war. Do
we, traditional Catholics, want to serve the interests of a clan waging
war with the goal of
“tearing down the old order”? Don’t we have enough of that, only looking
to the ruins within
the Church herself, brought about by the same mentality by our
postconciliar churchmen?
As someone who writes from a little country in the heart of Europe, whose
“old order” was torn
down by President Wilson and his “Dream Team” after World War I, I can
bring to your attention
what comes after such a storm: destruction of civilization and its
replacement by sheer force,
hiding behind the Great Will of the Zeitgeist. Communism would never have
appeared on the face
of the earth without the previous destruction brought about by the false,
messianic agenda of
political and social progressivism. Neoconservatism, despite the conflict
between itself and
Communism during the Cold War, has much more in common with its former
enemy than with
Christendom and any possible attempts to revive the idea in our modern
cir***stances. As
someone who lived through the latest phase of Marxism-Leninism in its
Soviet mode, has been
expelled from university and jailed, I can smell the rat. The war in Iraq
(and possible new,
future wars), led by the neoconservatives, Zionists, and other parties
with a vested interest
in the Middle East conflict, is not only not a war to crush Islam, but it
is rather going to
bring about a state of affairs that will make our time look sunny and
rosy.
Catholics and all open-minded men of good will must read these books for a
full conceptual
grasp of what the tragedy of the war in Iraq implies for the rule of law,
fairness and decency,
and the moral law as enunciated by the Church and codified by the Faith.
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