Saturday, July 30, 2011

The Republican Neocon Consensus Has Collapsed

Writing in The New Republic, the inimitable Eli Lake compares and contrasts the foreign policy ideas (though not necessarily credentials) of GOP presidential candidates, and the shift that's occurred since 2008. Short version: Concerns about Muslim integration, foreign policy realism, and an isolationist streak have replaced nation building and gun-point democratization as the GOP obsessions du jour. Points of conflict between candidates include whether the U.S. should be encouraging revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East (Michele Bachmann says no, heaps praise on Mubarak; Tim Pawlenty says yes), and whether our rush into Libya was a wise one, or whether it happened too slowly (again, Pawlenty and Bachmann are opposites on this question as well). Here's the gist:

Ron Paul calls for a crash, Mitt Romney disappears, Rick Perry combs his hair

We are witnessing the brand destruction of the Tea Party House members that will probably bring back Speaker Pelosi, turn Ron Paul into a virtual political crank and occasion the complete disappearance of Mitt Romney (who has zero to say about the great issue that threatens a crash) and the lightweight maneuvering of Rick Perry, the latest neocon hope of a desperate GOP.

Now Rick Perry is meeting with one of the neocons in chief, Douglas Feith. Will we soon have bombs-away Perry, looking for wars to fight? Does Rick Perry think the voters demand another neocon from Texas? Will Perry campaign as the candidate who acts like the great actor Slim Pickens in the great film "Dr. Strangelove," who near the end of the film sat atop a nuclear bomb, waving his hat as he rode the bomb down to end the world?

The War Nerd Vs. Neocon Knucklehead Victor Davis Hanson: A War Nerd Classic

For your reading pleasure, The eXiled is reposting one of the War Nerd’s most famous–and hilarious–episodes: The epic battle pitting Gary Brecher against neocon historian Victor Davis Hanson, guru to Dick Cheney and “Scooter” Libby. Like Bull Run, this battle came in two parts: the first part begins with the War Nerd’s devastating opening salvo attack on July 28, 2005, in an article headlined “Victor Davis Hanson: Portrait of an American Traitor”:

Victor Hanson: Portrait of an American Traitor
by Gary Brecher

Texe Marrs : the Norway bomber is a neocon Zionist wacko

Texe Marrs on the Dr Deagle Show 26 July 2011 -" there is no doubt that we have here a false flag operation says Texe Marrs , the Norway Bomber belongs to the rich elite of Norway , son of a Norwegian diplomat and his mother married to a high ranked Norwegian military , he is a neocon Zionist wacko says Texe Marrs ANALYSIS OF THE FINANCIAL GAME OF THE USA DEBT CEILING FIGHT IN WASHINGTON, D.C. AND GLOBAL ELITE PLANS FOR EARTH

Friday, July 29, 2011

Neo-Cons and Muslim Haters

Some leading neoconservatives cited by Anders Behring Breivik in his rambling commentary are David Horowitz, Daniel Pipes, Robert Spencer, and Pamela Geller, all of whom have been leaders in the indictment of Islam and each of whom is, not coincidentally, a vocal advocate of Israel and its policies. They are the alligators in the swamp that they have created and are now frantically engaged in distancing themselves from their words and deeds. But sometimes the truth will out.

Did Geller alert the Norwegian authorities? No, but she did make sure the Norwegian message was read by her thousands of supporters. Geller has removed the posting from her website but it can still be found through Google.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Murdoch Is Daddy Warbucks to the Neocons

While reading his speech, I was thinking how nice it would be if Murdoch withdrew his funding from the neocon empire. This may be the only point about which President Obama and I would agree. What Murdoch’s fortunes have done is allow a hegemonic persuasion, neoconservatism, give or take a few changeable additives, to gain undue influence on a drifting American Right, including the Republican Party. In the 1980s the conservative movement, whatever its deficiencies, exhibited a wide range of views on social and historical questions. Many of the views that are now identified with an alternative or disaligned Right were then expressed in National Review and in other widely read and once-interesting publications that have since come under neoconservative control. The major funder of neoconservative publications in the 1980s was the World Unification Church, and the recipients of funding from the Reverend Moon tried to hide their dependence on this leader of a Korean sect, by ridiculing their beneficiary. Then Rupert entered the scene and showered the neoconservatives with billions of dollars. This allowed them to get off the Moonie dole and into a powerful media position.

I’m not suggesting we’d all be on a level playing field if only Murdoch stopped funding the usual suspects. They would still be getting funds from multiple sources, including Asian governments fighting protectionism, global democratic troublemakers, and Jewish Democrats who support the neoconservatives on Israel. What would change would be the disparity between what neocons get and what the marginalized Right is surviving on. Moreover, it would no longer be necessary for libertarians or conservative Christians to depend on neocon generosity to get TV time or be treated sympathetically in the neoconservative-dominated press. More competition would be possible if the trust that Murdoch has subsidized fell apart.

Neocons' Iraq Criticism Rings Hollow

While Washington gets ready to default, another deadline looms on the horizon: December 31, 2011, when all American forces are due to be out of Iraq. The dysfunction of Iraqi politics has made it impossible for Baghdad to do what most people think is the rational thing—to request that some American forces remain to assist the Iraqi government in strengthening both its internal and external security capabilities. The Obama administration has signaled repeatedly that it is willing to do so, but that has not stopped neoconservative critics and former Bush administration officials from blaming Obama for Iraq’s failure to get its act together. The irony, of course, is that the democracy they were so proud to give Iraq (at such great cost to both Americans and Iraqis) is the reason that their preferred policy of continued American military presence in the country is not working out.

The neocon criticism of the Obama administration for not doing enough to bring the Iraqis to their senses is shot through with internal contradictions. Frederick and Kimberly Kagan wrote in the Weekly Standard in April that “[t]he ball is not in Maliki’s court. It is in Obama’s court,” contending that a lack of serious American commitment to Iraq was forcing Maliki into Iran’s arms. They called on the president to “stand by Iraq’s leaders as long as those leaders stand by the democratic processes now tenuously in place.”

Terrorism Experts on Parade

But Kohlmann does have excellent credentials in the agenda-driven, neocon-dominated world of terrorism punditry, and that is what really counts, because association with right-wing or pro-Israel organizations is a sine qua non. He first became involved in studying terrorism during his freshman year at Georgetown University. In 1998, he began an internship with The Investigative Project on Terrorism, a think tank set up by Steve Emerson — a notably Islamophobic journalist who had also become a terrorism expert. Emerson, who also cannot speak any Middle Eastern languages, was one of the first to proclaim that Oklahoma City was an attack by Muslims, without producing any evidence whatsoever, arguing that “inflicting as many casualties as possible is a Middle Eastern trait.” He later claimed that the “U.S. has become occupied fundamentalist territory.” As Alexander Cockburn once observed, Emerson’s “prime role is to whitewash Israeli governments and revile their critics.”

Kohlmann is just one manifestation of the global war on terror’s big-money expert business. Like many of his colleagues, he is selling a product, and the product is all too often denigrating and targeting Muslims because he knows he will have access to the mainstream media to do so. Why does he do it? Partly because he knows that’s where the money is and partly because it has given him his moment of fame. Andy Warhol said someday everyone would have 15 minutes of fame, and it might be that this is Kohlmann’s time in the sun. Someday perhaps he will regret what he now does for a living, but, for the present, asking him to develop a conscience or a sense of responsibility would likely be to seek too much. In the meantime, he continues to do that which brought him to prominence: playing the role of an expert in order to arouse the same sort of fear in jury and military commission members as well as television viewers as neocon websites incited in the Norwegian terrorist.

Neocon Spook in the Senate

Mark Kirk (R-ONI) worries that the US state is not murdering enough people around the world, not dominating enough foreign countries, not extending the empire to Neptune, or whatever. That is, he is worred about the Peace Candidate, Ron Paul, and his vast and growing influence.

Death and Texas: Rick Perry’s Neocon Clues

Compared to past election cycles, this year’s Republican presidential field has thus far offered an unusual level of diversity on foreign policy. While the field does not fully reflect the level of war-weariness that has crept gradually into segments of the GOP congressional caucus (to say nothing about the weariness of war spending), it has nonetheless accommodated certain deviations from the party’s nationalist-neoconservative bent of 2004 and 2008.

In the extreme, libertarian candidates Ron Paul and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson have called for significant rollbacks in U.S. foreign adventures, as well as a tightening of the spigot of military spending that nourishes them.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The Return of the Neocons’ Prodigal Son

Suggestions that the “counter-jihadist” ideology spread by such websites as Frontpagemag.com, run by neocon David Horowitz, and the affiliated “Jihad Watch,” inspired – and provoked – the Norway killer Anders Behring Breivik have been met with cries of outrage by the neoconservative Right. This is hardly surprising: confronted with the sight of someone who put their hateful and inherently violent ideology into practice, what else are they supposed to do? There is, however, a superficially reasonable case to be made against drawing any larger lesson from the Norwegian tragedy. As Gene Healy, a vice president of the Cato Institute, put it:

The neoconservative agenda [.pdf] is about one thing and one thing only: the desirability and necessity of a war to the death against the Muslim Enemy. Their relationship with Breivik is identical to the links between the “theoreticians” of yesterday’s New Left – Herbert Marcuse, Franz Fanon, etc. – and the activist rank-and-file, the college professors and the kids. Spencer is the theory: Breivik is the practice.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Norway attack revives head of domestic terror

The recent terrorist attack in Norway was totally expected.

Of course, when it occurred, the first fingers jabbed into the air were pointed accusingly at Muslims. The Washington Post's neocon columnist Jennifer Rubin didn't bother for any pesky facts to come in before quoting extensively from an article in the Weekly Standard: "We don't know if al Qaeda was directly responsible for today's events, but in all likelihood the attack was launched by part of the jihadist hydra." Rubin expanded the Standard's neocon arguments to demand more defense spending. The Washington Post never published an update or retraction.

The New York Times also published a headline somewhat prematurely: "Blasts and Gun Attack in Norway; 7 Dead — Powerful Explosions Hit Oslo; Jihadis Claim Responsibility." The problem was that no such thing had occurred.

The Oslo Attacks: More False Flag Evidence

Breivik's alleged motive reflected his neocon right-wing sympathies, anti-Islamization views, and hostility to multiculturalism. Regardless of how many Breivik types agree, they don't bomb government buildings or mass murder children. On July 22, something entirely different happened. Two previous articles discussed it, accessed through the following links:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/07/oslo-attacks-comment-and-analysis.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/07/possible-israeli-connection-to-oslo.html

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Former Neocon Now Supports Ron Paul

Is the Norwegian Terrorist a Neocon?

The apparent mass murderer, instead of being fanatically pro-Muslim and anti-West, turns out to be fanatically anti-Muslim and pro-West (and pro-Israel). Indeed, his fevered brain was much influenced by such neocons as Daniel Pipes. The children who were massacred had held a pro-Palestinian rally the day before, and the Norwegian government planned to recognize Palestine and get out of Libya, both acts eliciting the hatred of neocons. As to his religion, it is not exactly traditionally Christian, though he may be some sort of Christianist. (Thanks to Ralph Raico and Gary North)

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Neocon game

I am totally dismayed to see that Governor Perry chose Donald Rumsfeld and several of his neoconservative disciples to advise him on foreign affairs. Rumsfeld was the worst secretary of defense in American history. He couldn’t even manage to put armor on humvees. How many young lives did he snuff out? The neocons have been wholly discredited. It’s not hard to see why Perry likes them. The neocons believe in utilizing America’s military to extend American power, and Perry loves the exercise of power.

I don’t know whether, what, or how much Perry reads, but there are plenty of good books about how the Bush administration in general and Rumsfeld in particular bungled the war in Iraq and allowed the insurgency to flourish. Bush will carry the stain of the war to his grave and into the history books. Believe me, I’m no anti-war hand-wringer. When it comes to issues of war and peace, I’m a realist, not an idealist. What concerns me about Perry’s playing footsie with the neocons is that he is following his instinct to make policy based on ideology instead of acquiring knowledge about the mistakes of the past. And a failed ideology at that.

Fleitz of Fancy & A New Diehl on Iran: The Fear-Mongering Continues

Alarmist editorializing about Iran, its regional influence, and its nuclear energy program have picked up considerably in the past few weeks. Despite the latest IAEA report this past Spring which revealed no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, a hefty Sy Hersh article confirming that all 16 American intelligence agencies still stand by their 2007 assessment that Iran has no nuclear weapons program, and the potential for a large-scale U.S. withdrawal from Iraq at the end of the year, career fear-mongers have been hard at work trying to raise the Iranian threat level from mild khaki to frantic crimson.

An opinion piece published last night in the Wall Street Journal is a perfect example of the heightened hysteria. The article, entitled “America’s Intelligence Denial on Iran“, was written by former CIA agent Fred Fleitz, a neoconservative Bomb Iran-er who served as John Bolton’s State Department chief of staff and is currently a columnist for the right-wing outlet Newsmax.

Friday, July 22, 2011

An alternative to neocon nonsense

If you want some relief from the idiocies expressed in the video I posted showing such clowns as Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty and Herman Cain, watch the above video of Ron Paul.

After listening to that fact-filled exposition, watch our girl Michele prove she is the single stupidest person ever to declare for the presidency. In the video below she makes the amazingly ignorant statement that all the debt run up by all the presidents in history didn't equal the debt run up in Barack Obama's first year.

Neocon Jeffrey Feltman Visits Libya Brandishing The Dahiyeh Doctrine and “The New Realities”

Even some of the by-now-familiar cast of characters are the same in Libya as in Lebanon, including certain neocons at the State Department, National Security Agency, and Pentagon as well as Congressional war mongers like John McCain and one of John’s favorite drinking buddies, arch-Zionist John Bolton.

So it was no major surprise here in Tripoli when who appeared just next door across the Libyan border on 7/17/11 but the region's nemesis, US Undersecretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs and former US Ambassador to Lebanon, Jeffrey Feltman.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Rumsfeld involved in Rick Perry meeting with neocon advisers

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is helping Rick Perry with his 2012 White House bid by helping provide foreign policy briefers. The Polotico reports that Rumsfeld former aides Doug Feith, Daniel Fata, and William Luti were in Austin last week for a tutorial with Perry on national security issues. The session was yet another indication that Perry is edging toward a presidential run. The session with the neocon advisers might raise eyebrows even in some Republican quarters because of a feeling the neocons around George W. Bush helped steer the country into war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ben Smith of The Politico says that while Perry's camp has been "tight-lipped" about the sessions, Rumsfeld helped organize it. A Rumsfeld spokesman confirmed the meetings but said the former defense secretary and Perry have not met recently - and that Rumsfeld is watching the developing presidential contest with interest.

Is Rick Perry The Most Neocon Friendly Candidate?

Texas Governor Rick Perry hasn't even officially entered the race yet, but per Ben Smith he appears to be the neocon candidate of choice just based on whom he's taking advice from:

Perry's aides have been tight-lipped about the gathering, which National Review reported included former Rumsfeld aides Doug Feith, Daniel Fata, and William Luti, as well as the magazine's Andrew McCarthy and others . But I'm told Rumsfeld helped steer Perry's staff to the low-key advisory group.

Despite his tensions with Bush, this slate of advisers suggests Perry would be the candidate most likely to inherit the former president's foreign policy views. None of the other candidates' foreign policy braintrusts come close to this kind of continuity.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Neoconservative Says Killing Libyan's Will Save US Pride

With President Obama's Libya policy staggering from one embarrassment to another, last week he and Secretary of State Clinton outdid themselves. They publicly welcomed Russia's effort to insert itself as a mediator, an act of such strategic myopia that it must leave even Moscow's leadership speechless.

Permanent Security Council members Russia and China abstained on the initial resolution authorizing force to create a Libya no-fly zone and to protect innocent civilians. By not casting a veto, Russia thereby tacitly allowed military action to proceed. As they did, Russia repeatedly second-guessed and harshly criticized NATO's operations. Now, as a mediator, Russia will, in effect, have the chance to rewrite the Council's resolution according to its own lights.

Given the uncertain trumpet sounded by both Obama and NATO, and the still-inconclusive outcome of the "kinetic military action," the reputation and credibility of U.S. and NATO, militarily and politically, have been gravely impaired. The President likely doesn't appreciate these wounds as he leans over backwards not to be seen as the regime-changing unilateralist he imagined his predecessor to be.

America’s continuing neocon tendencies

Last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s personal lobbying in the Istanbul meeting of countries supportive of the Libyan rebels, known as the Transitional International Council, helped win them official recognition as the legitimate government of Libya. This will be a major boost for the rebels, both diplomatically and financially, as Libya’s frozen billions can now be placed at their disposal.

The decision to ratchet up pressure on Muammar Qaddafi may have been influenced by a continuing impression of a stalemate in Libya, even after months of massive aerial bombardment by Nato aircraft and provision of intelligence and training facilities to the rebels. US officials, however, claim that the regime has begun to suffer from dwindling fuel supply, a cash crisis and low morale among its troops, which explains why Qaddafi has reportedly sent emissaries suggesting a ceasefire.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Rick Perry as Hardcore Neocon War Hawk

Perry reportedly met former Bush aides Doug Feith and William Luti, both strong internal backers of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, as well as William Inbolden and Daniel Fata, whose article today is headed, "Why Iraq Still Matters."

The names of invitees to the Wednesday briefing -- and impressions from attendees at the meeting -- suggested to GOP foreign policy hands that Perry will likely stand on the hawkish side of a foreign policy divide inside the Republican Party...

"These are staunch internationalists, conservatives -- very much guys who are committed to victory in the conflicts we are engaged in," said a leader of that wing of the party, which is sometimes called, or calls itself, neoconservative. "These are not the sort of pople Huntsman or Mitch Daniels or even Bachmann would reach out to."

From Perry, neocon tea leaves

Rick Perry has yet to launch his 2012 presidential campaign, but his meeting in Austin last week, reported in National Review and elsewhere, with a set of Republican foreign policy hands seems to offer a glimpse at his emergent platform.

Perry reportedly met former Bush aides Doug Feith and William Luti, both strong internal backers of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Daniel Fata, whose article today is headed, "Why Iraq Still Matters."

The names of invitees to the Wednesday briefing — and impressions from attendees at the meeting —suggested to GOP foreign policy hands that Perry will likely stand on the hawkish side of a foreign policy divide inside the Republican Party.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Neocons Fume Over US Boat to Gaza

But the bottom line is this: Dershowitz’s Likud friends and their neocon chums in the Obama administration realize they have suffered a stinging – and unnecessary – PR defeat. They could easily have let our peaceful boat carrying passengers, media and letters of goodwill reach the isolated people of Gaza.

What we boaters appear to have accomplished is to provoke the mighty diplomats of Israel and the United States into a full-court press that brought renewed attention to the plight of the Gazans.

Why We Must Put The Neocons On Trial

It seems every generation must do battle with tyrants. The tyrants of America and the West are an elitist intellectual, political, security and financial class rather than military strong men as it is the case in many corrupt third world nations.

The neoconservatives served this elite by calling for a long war in the Middle East and the overthrow of independent regimes in numerous reports issued by private think tanks in the 1990s. Their poisonous ideas were then covertly implemented when they were brought inside the Bush administration by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

War With Iran? US Neocons Aim to Repeat Chalabi-Style Swindle

In 1991, Iraqi exiles set up the Iraq National Congress (INC) with funding from the CIA. Under the leadership of Ahmad Chalabi, and flush with tens of millions dollars in US government funding, the INC allied itself with the neoconservatives in Washington and unceasingly beat the drums of war, presenting itself as the popular democratic alternative to Saddam Hussein and feeding faulty intelligence to an eager media and Bush administration. Eventually, they succeeded in dragging the United States into disastrous war that cost Americans and Iraqis their lives and caused incalculable damage to American prestige and power.

Now, history may be repeating itself.

A segment of our political establishment that is chafing at the bit for a military attack on Iran has found their INC, in the form of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (also known as the MEK, or MKO), a radical Islamic terrorist group with Iranian roots that has been designated a terrorist organization since the State Department created the Foreign Terrorist Organization list in 1997.

Neocon Foreign Policy Initiative Still Clinging To ‘Recall The U.S. Ambassador To Syria’ Policy

Republicans and neocons who had either previously called on the Obama administration to recall U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford or tried to block his confirmation as ambassador have been fairly quiet since Ford’s bold move to join protesters in the Syrian city of Hama to demonstrate against the Assad regime. Ford’s move won wide praise from analysts here in the U.S., and even from the Syrian pro-democracy activists themselves.

Not only has Ford seemed to embolden the anti-Assad movement in Syria, but Ford himself and senior Obama administration officials have said his presence there gleans valuable information, as Foreign Policy’s Marc Lynch reported:

29 Reasons Why America Should Cut Off Ties With Israel, AIPAC And The Neocons

But the neocons are not modern-day philosopher-kings. Washington is the kingdom of rats, and the neocons have climbed up to become the top rats. As the children of modern totalitarianism, ancient oppression, and Medieval tyranny they are the poisonous destroyers of freedom, not its proud defenders. These dangerous nuts and armchair warriors don't live in reality, but through their influence on America's Middle East policy their insane ideas have caused real havoc in the Middle East. They live, breathe, think and dream in their own little crazy world. They are after blood and glory, not peace and freedom, but the blood that is being spilled is not their own, and the glory they seek is an illusion.

America was deceived and tricked on 9/11 to be an instrument of destruction and tyranny by the neocons, the U.S. Shadow Security State, and Israel, all of whom share responsibility for the false flag attacks on that day. At the heart of this evil deception is the belief that America should fight one last world war before its powers are destroyed and its constitutional government is replaced once and for all by a global authoritarian government that will become the Babel for the global financial empire that has secretly ruled America since the establishment of the private Federal Reserve Bank in 1913.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Next Up: Pakistan

I see someone besides myself has noticed all the "leaking" going on in the upper echelons of Washington over our rocky relationship with Pakistan. Suddenly Islamabad is on the verge of being classified as part of the Axis of Evil, with the head of the joint chiefs, Admiral Mullen, openly accusing the Pakistanis of "sanctioning" the killing of a journalist, and allying with a faction of the Taliban. Since when does a military man – the titular uniformed head of the US armed force, no less – speak out on such sensitive political matters? Why, when he has the full backing of the White House – which obviously has plans for the Pakistanis.

The new accusations add fuel to the fire started by the discovery of Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad lair, where he had been hiding for years. The Pakistan-haters in the administration – of which there seem to be plenty – were quick to draw the conclusion that he'd been hiding with the knowledge and cooperation of the Pakistani military – because of the hideout's proximity to an elite military academy. Which is odd, since it is well known that al-Qaeda operatives were living in the US for years, undetected, as they planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Heck, FBI agents in the field warned Washington after one of the terrorists took flight training lessons and was reported for suspicious activities – to no avail. What if someone in Pakistan had reported similarly suspicious activity in Abbottabad to the local authorities, and no action had been taken – in the view of the anti-Pakistan crowd, wouldn't that constitute prima facie proof of Islamabad's guilt?

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Neoconservatives vs. Conservatives: Who Are the Real "Extremists"?

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the Republican Party establishment—I refer to both politicians as well as the punditry class constituting the so-called “new” or “alternative media”—is not conservative. It is neoconservative.

Although this is not something of which readers of this site need to be informed, it is a point worth repeating nonetheless.

Few and far between are those neoconservatives who refer to themselves as such. Usually, neoconservatives identify themselves as “conservative.” But because the neoconservative’s is the face and voice of one of our two national political parties, his refusal to come to terms with his true identity means that in the popular American consciousness, the neoconservative ideology is confused with conservatism proper. However, traditional or classical conservatism, the conservatism of which Edmund Burke is among the most notable and impassioned representatives, is not only distinct from neoconservatism; it is diametrically opposed to it.

Neoconservatism is but the most recent species of what most students of political philosophy now call “Enlightenment liberal rationalism.” That this is so is easily gotten from the causes that the neoconservative is disposed to support, especially the cause of “Global Democracy” — the enterprise of toppling regimes throughout the Middle East and beyond for the sake of establishing “democratic” governments in their wake.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Meaning of Constitution lost in 2011

Rush Limbaugh has a question he likes to repeat, in mockery of President Barak Obama: "How's that hope and change working out for you?" This is fitting. Sadly, there is one question America's most popular neocon will probably never utter: "How's that Constitution working out for you?"

The U.S. Constitution, in most of its details, is almost never criticized. It has nearly become an object of worship itself, as though it were writ by the finger of God and delivered by Him to the members of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, who then, like so many latter-day Moseses, came out from their sacred meeting room in Sinai-en-Philadelphia to deliver this new revelation to the frightened, helpless masses.

Friday, July 08, 2011

Neocons Want War and More War

The neoconservatives remain powerful in Washington in large part because of their continued influence inside leading opinion-setting journals like the New York Times and the Washington Post, two prestige newspapers that have pressed ahead with the neocon agenda despite serious blows to their credibility in recent years

Sometimes the New York Times and the Washington Post behave like two vintage ocean-liners competing to see which will edge out the other in a competition to become the flagship for American neoconservatism. Think of a cross-Atlantic race between the Titanic and the Lusitania.

The Times was pouring on the coal in Friday’s editions, pushing the Obama administration and NATO to finish off the war in Libya. The Times editors seemed most concerned at the prospect of negotiations to resolve the conflict without a clear-cut military victory over Col. Muammar Gaddafi.

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Bachmann talks to McCain about foreign policy, Pawlenty talks to Vin Weber

Foreign Policy magazine has a roundup of four leading contenders for the Repub nomination, focusing on their known foreign policy views and where they are going for advice.

The two Minnesotans both made the list, along with Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, which I guess constitutes that journal's list of frontrunners.

Tim Pawlenty basically has the foreign policy views of a neo-con, but doesn't want to be referred to with that term. One of TPaw's two mentioned foreign policy advisors is former Minnesota congressman Vin Weber, who has been willing in the past to embrace the neocon label.

Michelle Bachmann is often labeled as the Tea Party candidate in the race, which might imply an isolationist we-can't-afford-all-these-wars streak, but no, says Foreign Policy, she is quite a hawk and has been getting advice from John McCain. When I've listened to Bachmann in recent months, she always suggests that she is the candidate who can unite all kinds of conservatives, including what she calls "national security conservatives," which is code for hawks.

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Tim Pawlenty: The Latest Dangerous Neoconservative

Republicans have spent a decade as the party of war. In fact, since President George W. Bush abandoned his call for a “humble foreign policy” the country has not been at peace. Now former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has unabashedly raised the neoconservative banner.

President Bill Clinton famously wished to be a wartime leader, but ordering 78 days of high-altitude bombing of Serbia doesn’t count. When he left office Americans were not in combat, other than undertaking episodic air and missile strikes to enforce the “no fly” zone over Iraq. Looking back, those were the good ole days.

Unfortunately, this relative peace ended with 9/11. Rather than limit his response to targeting al-Qaeda, President Bush launched two nation-building crusades.

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Pawlenty confuses Iraq and Iran



I recently wrote of how the so-called “Minnesota Twins” are helping to fuel the movement to have our governor enter the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

That’s not all Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty are doing. The current congresswoman and former governor also are combining to finish off — once and for all — that theory of foreign policy known as “neoconservatism.”

Stop US and Zionist war, occupation, holocaust and genocide: make 4 July Independence From America Day

The World must stop Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI) occupation and genocide variously in Occupied Palestine, Occupied Syria, Occupied Haiti, Occupied Somalia, Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan. The World should make 4 July Independence From America Day.

We all know the great words of the 4 July 1776 American Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. However these words did not apply to American Indians or to African slaves then any more than they apply today to Indigenous People in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia or indeed in any part of the World under violent US hegemony. The World must make 4 July Independence From America Day.

Ronald Reagan was no hawk – and certainly no neocon

Ronald Reagan is back. Today more than a thousand people crowded into London's Grosvenor Square to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the former US president. The ceremony, held a few metres from the US embassy, saw the unveiling of a 10ft bronze statue of Reagan, who died in 2004 at 93.

A hundred years on from his birth, seven from his death, and 22 years after he left the Oval Office, the Gipper remains a towering figure in American politics. In recent weeks Republican presidential candidates have been falling over each other to invoke his name and wrap themselves in his mantle, as Bushes I and II are quietly airbrushed from the party's history. Even Barack Obama, after his "shellacking" in November's midterm elections, made it known to reporters that he was reading a biography of Reagan. Oh, and liberal icon John Lennon was, according to his assistant, a secret supporter of America's 40th president.

Sunday, July 03, 2011

Pawlenty, Flailing, Goes Neocon

Actually, he's long been one, given his shallow, jingoistic approach to foreign policy. But, presumably to try to inject some kind of energy boost to his increasingly desperate campaign, he gave a speech yesterday that was pure neocoward; the United States can, and should, bully its way to greatness.

Oh, he didn't explicitly call for direct military intervention in all corners of the "Arab Spring," but he certainly gave the impression that he thinks the U.S. can somehow dictate the outcomes. The speech was facile and preposterous, pure political boilerplate, and it's telling that in his so-called major foreign policy address, he mentioned Afghanistan once, and Iraq not at all.

Tim Pawlenty’s Foreign Policy Speech And The Neocon Distortion Of Ronald Reagan’s Legacy

In a speech this morning before the Council on Foreign Relations, Tim Pawlenty made it clear where he stands in the ongoing foreign policy debate among the Republican candidates for President:

Tim Pawlenty laid out a tough, hawkish vision of foreign policy Tuesday, slamming President Barack Obama as failing on Middle East policy and accusing fellow Republicans of a retreat of their own.

In other words, the version of 80′s history that Pawlenty and many other Republican hawks like to tell themselves isn’t really all that true. Yes, Reagan built up our defenses, and yes he talked tough when necessary. At the same time, though, he was actively looking to resume arms control negotiations with the Soviets, he wanted to ultimately reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world, when American troops were attacked by terrorists in Lebanon, and he withdrew and disengaged rather than getting us involved in a Lebanese Civil War. Most importantly, though, Reagan recognized something that Pawlenty doesn’t, that there’s nothing wrong with talking to your enemy and, in fact, that’s exactly who you should be talking to because the only alternative is that you end up fighting them.

Neocons Want War and More War

The neoconservatives remain powerful in Washington in large part because of their continued influence inside leading opinion-setting journals like the New York Times and the Washington Post, two prestige newspapers that have pressed ahead with the neocon agenda despite serious blows to their credibility in recent years, a dilemma examined by Robert Parry.

The obvious conclusion is that many senior news executives share the world view of the neoconservatives, thus giving those war hawks enduring influence in the power centers of Washington even when the sitting U.S. president may not be one of their own.

For the New York Times and the Washington Post, it may seem like the smart play to continue competing for the status of neocon flagship publication. However, like the ill-fated ocean-liners – Titanic and Lusitania – the Times and the Post may be ignoring other risks around them as they steam ahead, compromising their journalistic credibility.

Friday, July 01, 2011

School Vouchers Are a Neocon Trick

The debate within the conservative movement over school vouchers keeps coming back. This reminds me of the sequels to the Frankenstein and Dracula movies in the 1930s and 1940s. No matter how many times the mob from the town destroyed a monster, it came back. The reason was clear: money. There were still ticket-buyers ready to see him return. Finally, it ended with Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948. When Bud and Lou got the screen rights, the franchises were over.

The latest revival of the school vouchers issue has come as a result of a Tea Party group in Pennsylvania, which is promoting vouchers for economically poor students. The idea is being challenged by libertarian Tea Party members. The New York Times describes the proposed law.