Neocon Cruise to Nowhere

This is hilarious. A group of wealthy Republicans paid $6000 apiece to spend seven days on a cruise ship with their neocon heros from the National Review – you know, those manly men who argue that America needs to bomb more nations, even though not one of them ever wore the uniform of the US military. This time Johann Hari from The New Republic joined them (more or less undercover) and reports on the fun (free registration required to access the article).  Europe was very much on the mind of these super-patriotic Americans; and Hari gives his fellow shipmates something to fume about concerning Germany:

I drop the news that there are moves in Germany to have Rumsfeld extradited to face war crimes charges. A red-faced man who looks like an egg with a moustache glued on grumbles, "If the Germans think they can take responsibility for the world, I don’t care about German courts. Bomb them." I begin to cite the Pinochet precedent, and O’Beirne snaps, "Treating Don Rumsfeld like Pinochet is disgusting." Egg Man pounds his fist on the table: "Treating Pinochet like that is disgusting. Pinochet is a hero. He saved Chile." "Exactly," adds O’Beirne’s husband. "And he privatized Social Security."

But what really has this crowd upset is the fact that (white) Europeans are not breeding enough; they will soon be outnumbered by the Muslim (terrorist) hordes, who have amazing sexual stamina.  Fortunately none other than the Islamophobe Supremo – Mark Steyn – is on board the ship to provide the necessary demographic "facts":

The table nods solemnly before marching onward to Topic A: the billion-strong swarm of Muslims who are poised to take over the world. The idea that Europe is being "taken over" is the unifying theme of this cruise. Some people go on singles’ cruises, some on ballroom-dancing cruises. This is the Muslims Are Coming cruise. Everyone thinks it. Everyone knows it. And the man most responsible for this insight is sitting only a few tables down: Mark Steyn. He is wearing sunglasses on top of his head and a bright shirt. Steyn’s thesis in his new book, America Alone, is simple: The "European races"–i.e., white people–"are too self-absorbed to breed," but the Muslims are multiplying quickly. The inevitable result will be "large-scale evacuation operations circa 2015" as Europe is ceded to Al Qaeda and "Greater France remorselessly evolve[s] into Greater Bosnia." He offers a light smearing of dubious demographic figures–he needs to turn 20 million European Muslims into more than 150 million in nine years, which is a lot of humping–to "prove" his case.

But facts, figures, and doubt are not on the itinerary of this cruise. With one or two exceptions, the passengers discuss "the Muslims" as a homogenous, sharia-seeking block–already with near-total control of Europe. Over the week, I am asked nine times–I counted–when I am fleeing Europe’s encroaching Muslim population for the safety of the United States.

At one of the seminars, a panelist says anti-Americanism comes from both directions in a grasping pincer movement–"The Muslims condemn us for being decadent; the Europeans condemn us for not being decadent enough." Midge Decter, Norman Podhoretz’s wife, yells, "The Muslims are right, the Europeans are wrong!" And, instantly, Jay Nordlinger, National Review‘s managing editor and the panel’s chair, says, "I’m afraid a lot of the Europeans are Muslim, Midge." The audience cheers. Somebody shouts, "You tell ’em, Jay!"

Anway, there is a boatload of fun to be had reading this article, including some surprising new facts. For example, we learn that Saddam Hussein really did have stockpiles of WMDs, but somehow smuggled them into Syria.  What a crowd! Great reporting by Johann Hari and The New Republic.