Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The Franklin case and the Five by Jean-Guy Allard

The most dangerous spy in recent U.S. history, Lawrence "Larry" Franklin, 59, is currently working as a parking attendant at an exclusive Casino and Racetrack in West Virginia while waiting to testify in the trial of his two accomplices.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal publication Franklin, an expert Pentagon analyst who personally advised Donald Rumsfeld, is working as a "valet" in the parking lot at the Charles Town Races & Slots, located in Charles Town, West Virginia between Baltimore and Washington D.C.

Monday, February 27, 2006

Neocons jump ship by Justin Raimondo

We are losing, avers Buckley, on account of our humanitarianism, embodied in our reluctance to use such "interventionist measures" as were deployed against Hitler and Hirohito: we are not quite ready, in short, to punish those ungrateful and rebellious objects of our "liberation" by duplicating the bombing of Dresden or the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Kristol would call this faintheartedness, and the lack of these sorts of measures lies behind his imputation of a lack of "seriousness" on the part of the U.S. Buckley quails at such a prospect, but Kristol doesn't flinch from implicitly calling for mass murder. It is the main difference between "mainstream" conservatism and its mutant offspring of the neoconservative persuasion.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

'Leninists!' Cries Neocon Nabob, Suing for Divorce by Jim Lobe

"[T]he neoconservative position articulated by people like Kristol and Kagan was … Leninist; they believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will," according to Fukuyama. "Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States."

"Neoconservativism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought," he went on, "has evolved into something I can no longer support."

Askariya Shrine Bombing: Black Op? by Kurt Nimmo

In Iraq, things are going swimmingly for the Straussian neocons. “A large explosion heavily damaged the golden dome of one of Iraq’s most famous Shiite shrines Wednesday, spawning mass protests and triggering reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques,” reports the Associated Press. “It was the third major attack against Shiite targets this week and threatened to stoke sectarian tensions. Shiite leaders called for calm, but militants attacked Sunni mosques and a gunfight broke out between Shiite militiamen and guards at the offices of a Sunni political party in Basra. About 500 soldiers were sent to Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad to prevent clashes between Shiites and Sunnis, Army Capt. Jassim al-Wahash said.”

How Neocons Sabotaged Iran's Help on al-Qaeda by Gareth Porter

The United States and Iran were on a course to work closely together on the war against al-Qaeda and its Taliban sponsors in Afghanistan in late 2001 and early 2002 – until Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped in to scuttle that cooperation, according to officials who were involved at the time.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Democracy & Its Discontents by Leon Hadar

In a way, neoconservative foreign policy is bursting with explosive self-contradiction. It urges Washington to use its military power to establish a hegemonic position in the Middle East, while at the same time it calls for holding free elections that empower forces opposed to the American hegemon and its allies. In Turkey, South Korea, Brazil, Chile, and Bolivia, free voting has resulted in the election of political parties that are less than enthusiastic about American’s goals. That free elections in the Middle East region, where hostility towards the United States is reaching the stratosphere, would bring to power illiberal and anti-American forces shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Who You Calling a Neocon? by Matthew Barganier

Francis Fukuyama distances himself from the neocons yet again, just in time to play guru to the next bunch of crusaders at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Now he's a "Wilsonian realist," whatever that is. It takes a Ph.D. to keep up with all the mutations of the War Party; luckily, we have one in Leon Hadar, who dissects Fukuyama's piece over on his blog. But at least Fukuyama's analysis of his exes is satisfying, as it confirms what Antiwar.com has been saying all along:

[T]he neoconservative position articulated by people like [Bill] Kristol and [Robert] Kagan was, by contrast, Leninist; they believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States.

Neocon architect says: 'Pull it down' by ALEX MASSIE

NEOCONSERVATISM has failed the United States and needs to be replaced by a more realistic foreign policy agenda, according to one of its prime architects.

Francis Fukuyama, who wrote the best-selling book The End of History and was a member of the neoconservative project, now says that, both as a political symbol and a body of thought, it has "evolved into something I can no longer support". He says it should be discarded on to history's pile of discredited ideologies.

Monday, February 20, 2006

IRAN IN NEO-CON CROSSHAIRS by Richard Walker

A new study by an international terrorism expert warns that a military attack launched by the Israelis on Iran’s nuclear facilities would certainly escalate to involve the United States, Iraq and Lebanon, as well as Persian Gulf states.

In its early stages, it would result in many thousands of civilian and military casualties.

Big Pharma Pushes "Miracle Cure" for Holocaust Denial Syndrome by Michael James

Governments, police services and prison authorities around the world are reportedly "overjoyed" by the launch of a new prescription drug that cures people who are suffering doubts about the veracity of the so-called Jewish Holocaust.

Shares in Israel-based Goy & Goy Pharmaceuticals Incorporated rocketed to 89 US dollars following the long-awaited announcement of a miracle cure for Holocaust Denial Syndrome (HDS).

Soon to be marketed and sold under the name Holozac, the drug works by rapidly closing down the brain's centre of intellectual inquiry. It also blocks the re-uptake of politically incorrect neurotransmitters involved in critical thought processes, making it more difficult to distinguish between truth and lies.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Stopping the War on Iran, Before It Starts by GARY LEUPP

I have thought for a long time now that the U.S. would attack Iran. I know that the experts have said this simply isn't possible so long as the U.S. is bogged down in Iraq, and that Jack Straw has stated pretty clearly that Britain won't be on board if the U.S. decides to use its "military option." U.S. domestic opposition to the war on Iraq has slowly risen to about 55%, and there is no groundswell for a third war in Southwest Asia. But the U.S. has for several years called openly for "regime change" in Tehran, and while early on during the Bush administration Colin Powell's State Department opted to court reformers in the Iranian government, the neocons in power have long since put their bets of the underground opposition. They don't negotiate with evil, as they like to say; they plan to defeat it.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Shooting Whittington: the Least of Cheney's Crimes by Kurt Nimmo

I don’t care if the war criminal Dick Cheney shot one of his rich Republican friends. I am disgusted by this story dominating headlines while the Straussian neocons—who run roughshod over the Constitution in dictatorial fashion through their cardboard cut-out, brain damaged, unelected president—methodically plan to attack another sovereign nation and kill hundreds of thousands of people, poison millions of innocent others with depleted uranium, destroy and loot more antiquities, deliberately wreck hospitals, electrical plants and water and sewage treatment facilities, the same way they did in Iraq.

Neocon avatar predicts trouble for right

An influential neoconservative thinker whose intellectual fingerprints are on both the Iraq war and the 1994 electoral sweep that gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress warned an audience in Winston-Salem on Feb. 7 that the conservative movement is at a crossroads, with Republicans facing a “bitter domestic struggle” to defend their agenda in the next two elections.

What Is a Neoconservative? -- & Does It Matter? by Dale Vree

The neocons, mainly through the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), planned for a war against Iraq well before 9/11 (one big reason being because Saddam was a supporter of terrorism against Israel). The Bush Administration is peppered with people from PNAC, such as Dick Cheney, Lewis "Scooter" Libby (indicted on five counts, including obstruction of justice and perjury), Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, and Richard Perle. These people tutored -- let's be honest -- an ignorant President Bush, who had no experience in foreign affairs, to launch it.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Iran Attack - Turning America Into A Straussian Totalitarian State by Kurt Nimmo

It is, of course, far too late to stop the Straussian neocon Iran attack. However, as negative as it may sound, we can take a bit of solace in the possibility that the United States will bite off more than it can chew. If the entire Middle East rises up in response to the unprovoked attack upon Iran-and, more ominous, Russia and China support the Muslim enemies of the perfidious Straussian neocons-there is a distinct chance the Straussian project will collapse and fail. However, the specter of nuclear war remains, as the fascistic Straussian neocons will certainly not go down without a fight-or without killing millions of innocent people. Before this happens, hopefully sanity will rule at the Pentagon and officers less concerned with their careers than the fate of mankind will step up and depose the Straussian neocons.

The Mohammed Cartoons: Recruiting Europe for Bush’s Attack on Iran

The evidence strongly suggests that the cartoon provocation was presented to Atlanticist oligarchs at the meeting of the Bilderberger group held from May 5 to May 8, 2005 at the Dorint Sofitel Seehotel Ãœberfahrt in Rottach-Egern, on the shores of the Tegernsee lake in the south German federal state of Bavaria. (See http://www.bilderberg.org/2006.htm#Fountainhead for a partial attendance list) The first publication of the cartoons in Denmark followed in September 2005. This meeting was attended by the certified neocon fascist madmen Michael Ledeen, Richard Perle, and William Luti – all desperadoes haunted by the prospect of criminal indictment for their roles in the Iraq aggression, the Plame case, the Niger yellowcake forgeries, and the Lord Conrad Black embezzlement case. All three are fanatic proponents of the wider war against Iran, also in the hope of staying out of jail. Others in attendance included Dutch, Belgian, and Spanish royalty, top Eurocrats and NATO bigwigs (including NATO Secretary General Jaap Hoop de Scheffer himself) from Brussels, Rockefeller and Rothschild international bankers, and such all-purpose villains as Henry Kissinger. Another prominent participant in the Bavarian Bilderberger group was Anders Eldrep of Denmark, a Bilderberger regular over the last five years. This Anders Eldrep (or Eldrup),the chairman of DONG (Danish Oil and Natural Gas), is the husband of Merete Eldrep, the managing director of JP/Politikens Hus (JP for Jyllands-Posten), the Danish publishing firm which owns the newspaper which first published the Mohammed cartoons.

Some Senators are beginning to understand, Neocon is not Republican by Guy T. Sturino

Who was it that tattled on the President for spying on us? The Neocons are hot on the trail. When they find that despicable individual who couldn’t keep his mouth shut I hope he gets just what he deserves – The Congressional Medal of Honor. While we wait for that to happen, though, we are getting another lesson in the propaganda process of the Neocon movement.

Daniel Pipes and the Danish Editor by JOHN SUGG

So, let’s look at the guy who started this whole cartoon escapade. He’s Flemming Rose, the cultural editor of the Danish newspaper. In all of the Lexis-Nexis database of stories from the American media on the Mohammed cartoons, there is absolutely no mention of the fact that Rose is a close confederate of arch-Islamophobe Daniel Pipes. Indeed, there is almost no context at all about Rose’s newspaper. On a brief mention in the Washington Post gave a hint at a fact desperately needed to understand the situation. The Post described the affair as “a calculated insult … by a right-wing newspaper in a country where bigotry toward the minority Muslim population is a major, if frequently unacknowledged, problem.”

Masters of Deception by Justin Raimondo

A familiar cast of characters stars in this tale of intrigue and disinformation: Manucher Ghorbanifar, the Iranian arms merchant and master of deception, who, along with neoconservative guru Michael Ledeen – another player in this drama – was entangled in the Iran-Contra affair. Larry Franklin makes a guest appearance at a meeting in Rome where the plot was reportedly hatched. Oh, and a mysterious Iranian named "Ali," who, it turns out, is the pseudonym for Fereidoun Mahdavi, a former minister under the Shah, now a secretary to Ghorbanifar.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Goodbye Iraq, hello Afghanistan by Pepe Escobar

Washington neo-conservatives, from Cheney to former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, may have dreamed of unlimited strategic power by controlling Iraq. What they got instead is a loose Iran/Iraq alliance. And they still could get something even more nightmarish, as American academic Noam Chomsky put it, "A loose Shi'ite alliance controlling most of the world's oil, independent of Washington and probably turning toward the East, where China and others are eager to make relationships with them, and are already doing it."

WMD Pipeline from Iraq to Syria? by William Norman Grigg

Sada doesn’t claim to be an eyewitness, insisting that he was told of the transfer by Iraqi airline pilots who supposedly flew 56 missions to deliver chemical weapons to Syria. “I know them well,” Sada told the paper. “They are very good friends of mine. We trust each other. We are friends as pilots.” The anonymous pilots purportedly claimed that two Iraqi Airways Boeing jets were “converted to cargo planes by removing the seats,” after which special Republican Guard brigades loaded what were described as “yellow barrels with skull and crossbones on each barrel.”

Of course, the only way to validate or falsify Sada’s claim would be to invade and occupy Syria. Should the chemical weapons then fail to materialize, would another “witness” appear, solemnly attesting that they have been transferred to Sudan, or Lebanon, or Egypt, or Saudi Arabia, or perhaps even to France — that is, to some other country on the neo-conservative hit list?

Monday, February 13, 2006

Daniel Pipes NeoCon Conspiracy: Pipeline to War by BARRY CHAMISH

And what if the latest candidate for the Attila the Hun award goes to Daniel Pipes?

That is precisely what is being claimed throughout the world wide web at this moment. Though you will not be happy with the sources and sites, read them seriously, no matter how much you've been trained to believe they must be lying.

The world is upside down. Israel's highest-level "friends and allies" are selling us down the river. And our "enemies" may yet become our allies when they realize that Israelis and Jews have been had.

IS IT WAR TIME YET? by Peter Fredson

Is “they” a country, a group of people, or anyone Bush considers to be a terrorist? Is “Stateless Terrorism” an entity? Is a vague ideology like the neocon strategy for world domination a terrorist entity?

If terrorists are spread world wide, does that mean we are then at War with the world? Are we now in WW IV, world-wide, with the right to invade any country or send missiles and planes into it to seek terrorists and in the process kill any civilians that happen to have been living there?

Putin the Peacemaker by Justin Raimondo

One has to wonder, however, why he would bring up the subject of Chechnya in this context. Especially since Israel's amen corner in the U.S. is so overtly sympathetic to the Chechen cause, as evidenced by the endorsers of the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya, including such neoconservative superstars as Jim Woolsey, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, and the omnipresent Michael Ledeen. In reminding Putin of his Chechen problem, perhaps Mofaz is implying it could get much worse.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Imperial delusions by Devlin Buckley

“The United States is a nation engaged in what will be a long war.” –2006 Quadrennial Defense Review

“Long wars are usually strategic disasters . . ." –The Long War, William Sturgiss Lind

The Department of Defense’s recently updated Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) -- adapted from a neoconservative fairy tail -- illustrates the treacherously defective reasoning of an empire in denial. Using the threat of terrorism as a pretext for imperial mobilization, the 113-page 20-year defense strategy is designed to fail.

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Zionism's Useful Idiots by Kurt Nimmo

That's you and me, taxpaying US citizens.

We're useful idiots for the Zionists in Washington and Tel Aviv. Useful because our hard-earned paychecks can be harvested to pay for war and mass murder in the Middle East, idiots because we don't do anything about it.

So outraged were the Sons of Liberty over British taxation without representation, they pitched a whole lot of Darjeeling tea into the Boston Harbor.

Now?

Friday, February 10, 2006

The Neocons' Long War by Robert Dreyfuss

According to The New York Times, alongside the QDR, the Pentagon has developed its own (classified) counterterrorism strategy. It is this mission, designed to combat an enemy that the Bush administration describes as equal in magnitude to the threat posed by German Nazism or Soviet communism, which is driving both the QDR and the huge expansion of the budget for the Defense Department and the U.S. intelligence community over the next few years. The QDR is the neoconservatives’ mythical World War IV, in line-item form.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

22 Bahman 1357 (February 11, 1979): What It Meant Then and What It Means Now by Shirin Neshat of Sarbazan

Shirin Neshat of Sarbazan recounts the day of 22 Bahman 1357 (February 11, 1979) in Iranian history, with information on the Islamic Revolution not widely understood in the West. Ms Neshat cites William Bowles' article in today's Countercurrents as the documentary evidence for the role of British Petroleum, George Ball and Zbigniew Brzezinski, Bernard Lewis, and the Bilderberg Group in overthrowing Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and replacing him with Khomeini and the Mullahs.

Cartoons are a purposeful provocation

It turns out the editor who originally publshed the "offensive" Muslim cartoons is a disciple of Daniel Pipes and the "clash of civilizations" theory put out by Project for a New American Century. PNAC is the outfit that called for a "Pearl Harbor event' in order to initiate a global war against the Muslim world.

Crhistopher Bollyn has more in American Free Press, Feb. 4:

Americans First by Steve Sailer

Finally, there’s an insidiously Jacobin implication to propositionism. If believing in neoconservative theories should make anyone in the world eligible for immigration, what should disbelieving in them make thought criminals like you and me? Candidates for deportation? For the guillotine?

Ultimately, propositionism seems less like a well thought-through philosophy and more like ethnocentric nostalgia, an intellectualized exercise in ancestor-worship. Emotionally, the neocons abhor asking tough questions about today’s immigrants because they see that as the equivalent of asking tough questions about their own Ellis Island immigrant forebears and, thus, about themselves.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Australia, Canada Join U.S. and Puppet Reefs in Backing Israel-centric Agenda by Ian Williams

Apart from the Bush rhetoric, I based my prophecy of doom on the steady attrition of leaks and briefings from the administration’s neocon corner. At least they could come up with a credible motive—taking out Iraq would be good for Israel. Apart from George W. Bush’s aside that Saddam Hussain had tried to assassinate his father, no one else really has come up with an excuse for the war that would hold water, let alone all the oil and blood that has been spilt.

No matter, it may not be a full-scale invasion of Iran, since even the looniest neocon may balk at that. But they do think that some sort of regime change in Tehran is effectible and that, as in Iraq (and Syria), the masses are just waiting for their oppressive regimes to be gone to declare their undying love for George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon. In Iran, of course, the masses have just ditched the reformers, who were anyway scorned and isolated by the U.S., for a hard-liner they now have to deal with. He may not be nice, but neither is George Bush. And both were elected by their faith-based constituencies.

Is it News, or is it Propaganda? by Guy T. Sturino

Nothing wrong there, right? Look at the exchange again. The country has just been given a lesson in the application of the Neocon debating formula. Take note that these are Neocon, not Republican, debating rules. They are not the kind of tactics used by my Republican friends, but the ideas are often repeated as fact. Which, of course, is the intent of the debating formula in the first place.

The effect of the process is to alter the publics' perception of reality. Unfortunately, it works. It works well. But, it is only part of this story. The other part is the news media. What facts did the reporter uncover? What information did the article present that anyone really needs to know? How does this article help anyone make the kind of informed decision required of a voter? Why was the article printed in the first place?

Monday, February 06, 2006

Prof. Strauss and the neocon takeover by Jim Silva

Neocon papers are thick with delusional paranoia like the following from Richard Perle, National Security Council: “No stages, this is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq . . . this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war . . . our children will sing great songs about us years from now.”

Prepare for Perpetual War by Justin Raimondo

In the face of the abysmal failure of their policies, from Iraq to the occupied territories to New Orleans, Bush and his neoconservative Praetorian Guard are not backing down – far from it, they are going forward with their plans for the "liberation" and "democratization" of the Middle East, confident in the knowledge that the sheer momentum of the forces they unleashed in "Operation Iraqi Freedom" will carry them onward to their objective.

Burning Down Danish Embassies: More Straussian Psychological Warfare?

For Straussian neocons and their fellow “clash of civilization” (war against Islam) travelers, al-Qaradawi is the perfect radical Muslim for their propaganda purposes. He supports Palestinian suicide bombing and opposes negotiating with Israel. According to the neocon and Jabotinsky Likudite organization MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute), al-Qaradawi issued a fatwa calling for the murder of all Americans in Iraq, both civilian and military (as it turns out, al-Qaradawi never issued the fatwa and Straussian neocon lies are legendary). It is also said the imam supports the execution of gay men, although this point is of less importance to the Straussians who run foreign policy in the United States.

Iranian "Democracy" and the "Intelligence" Summit by Ron Jacobs

That is Kenneth Timmerman -- neocon extraordinaire, member of the fear-mongering imperial project that calls itself the Committee on the Present Danger, and contributor to the neocon rag National Review and its ultra-right counterpart FrontPagemag.com. Interesting to note is this phrase that appears on the site: "Learn more about (the FDI Appeal) and what you can do to stop Iranian regime nuclear blackmail!" -- the exact same phrase expressed by George Bush on January 23, 2006.

Hamas and Democracy by Charley Reese

I laughed when Hamas swept the Palestinian elections. After all, President Bush and his gang of neoconservative ideologues have been preaching that democracy in the Middle East will lead to peace.

Oops. Now the president will once more have to expose himself as the hypocrite he is. Democracy is good, in Mr. Bush's view, only if it elects the people he wants in office. The choice of the Palestinian majority, expressed in what all the observers said was a free and fair election, is not acceptable to Mr. Bush.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Neo-Cons Take Advantage of Cartoon Row to Blast Syrians

Shortly after the United States government abandoned its European "allies" to condemn the printing of "offensive" cartoons of Muhammad, they were handed a gift with the torching of buildings that housed the Norwegian and Danish Embassies in Damascus, Syria, while Swedish and Chilean installations were also damaged. Along with Iran, Syria has long been in the sights of pro-Zionist neo-cons angling to spread the Iraq war against these two regional enemies of Israel. The Norwegian Embassy in Beirut was also torched.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Zionist Ideologue: 'Hamas Victory Leaves Me Neutral'

V-News Reader: The following essay by arch-Zionist ideologue Daniel Pipes underlines the contention made in a series of articles posted here at V-News that shows the "official" Israeli "shock" at the Hamas victory in Palestine is an obfuscation. In fact, Israel and its "Amen Corner" are delighted at the results, which they are using to excuse Israeli crimes while setting back international sympathy with the plight of the Palestinian people. They also get to jump aboard the "war on terror" bandwagon, pointing to backward, Medievalist Islamists on their very doorstep, when in fact it is mainly Israel -- along with US support for the bandit state -- that has fuelled Islamism and destabilized the Middle East. Pipes is also careful to attempt to shoehorn Israel into a position as "part of the West" when in fact Jews in all White nations have worked non-stop to encourage mass non-White immigration into Western lands. Pro-White groups swallow the hooked Zionist line at their peril.

A Treasonous Camarilla by Justin Raimondo

Feith is one of the more ideological neocons, with connections to the far-right wing of Israel's Likud Party and the settler movement. He presided over a newly created team of intelligence analysts – the Office of Special Plans (OSP) – whose job it was to think up the War Party's talking points. According to Karen Kwiatkowski, a retired Air Force officer and Pentagon analyst, Feith's Office of Special Plans was created from a narrow range of neoconservative think tanks – most notably the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a think tank founded by AIPAC officials and long associated with Israel's Washington lobby. Among the neocon activists who worked with the Near East and South Asia (NESA) bureau, we have one David Schenker, previously a WINEP research fellow, and Churchill expert Michael Makovsky, younger brother of senior WINEP fellow David Makovsky, formerly executive editor of the Jerusalem Post. It was a tightly knit little group, Kwiatkowski has testified:

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Democracy or Peace by Thomas Fleming

Throughout the 80’s and 90’s the neoconservatives who have given the President his world-view were proclaiming the glories of global democracy. One of their favorite sayings was that democracies never wage aggressive war. Even they, as ignorant of history as they are, could not possibly have been serious. Of course, they always like to weasel out on what a democracy is. Was the American a Union democratic state when it attacked the Confederacy? Britain a democracy when it plotted war against Germany in the opening years of the 20th century? Was the government of Jacobin France a democracy? Or the US a democracy when it invaded the Philippines? Was Athens a democracy when it converted the Delian League into the Athenian Empire and provoked war with Sparta and its allies?

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Put Hamas on probation by Pat Buchanan

Ever since President Bush, sometime after 9-11, converted to neoconservatism, his Middle East policy has suffered from the triple defects of that subspecies of the Right: hubris, ideology and immaturity.

Neoconservatives see the world as they wish it to be, not as it is. Like teenagers, they act on impulse and rail against the counsel of experience. "Often clever, never wise," Russell Kirk said of the breed.

Why We Fight by Justin Raimondo

Kristol, who, along with Perle, here represents the neocons, would politely demur, protesting that what he wants is "benevolent world hegemony," as he called it in a famous essay. Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz is shown making the case for war with Iraq, while Perle chimes in with a bold declaration that American foreign policy after 9/11 rightly shifted in "a radical direction." He clearly believes that isn't a bad development. Well, yes, says Kristol, but it would have happened even without 9/11 – and that really is a doubtful proposition. George W. Bush was elected to office promising a "humbler" foreign policy, and it is hard to imagine how he would have made the leap from humility to hubris quite so easily, if at all.