Saturday, November 29, 2014

Neocon Leftists, “American Exceptionalism,” and Immigration

Paul Greenberg’s last article proves what many of us have long known: neoconservatives are leftists by another name.

Greenberg waxes orgasmic over President Obama’s decision to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.  However, like every other champion of amnesty, he unequivocally denies both that he favors amnesty and that Obama has granted any such thing.  In fact, he enthusiastically seconds Obama’s line that “the real amnesty” is our current system, a system “that hasn’t stopped illegal immigration but just abandoned those who managed to sneak across the border, sentencing them to a vague limbo somewhere beyond the reach of law, offering them neither justice nor mercy” (italics added).  Greenberg is adamant that such a system is radically incompatible with “the America we know and still want to believe in.”

Read the entire article

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Neocons Claim to Fight Russian ‘Unreality’

In addition to a who’s who of neocon luminaries like Kagan and Kristol, the Henry Jackson Society’s international patrons include Ambassador Dore Gold, former permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations, and Natan Sharansky, chair of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Weiss’s previous employment at the UK-based, pro-Israel advocacy organization, however, is conspicuously absent from the lengthy “About the Authors” section at the end of the IMR-published, anti-Russia report. His updated bio, however, reveals that Weiss’s concerns haven’t changed much since his HJS days.

SOME NEOCONSERVATIVE SENATORS IN THE UNITED STATES REMAIN IN DIRECT CONTACT WITH THE ISIL TERRORIST GROUP, SAYS A JOURNALIST.

Yuram Abdullah Weiler, a columnist with the Tehran Times Daily from Denver, told Press TV that the neoconservatives and the Israeli spy agencies have maintained direct contacts with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the so-called leader of ISIL.

“We also have evidence that John McCain was in direct contact with al Baghdadi and possibly he is involved with [Israeli spy agency] Mossad. This appears it is very much US creation,” he said, referring to hawkish US Senator McCain.

The analyst said the United States has found a replacement for the red armies of the Communist era in the form of ISIL.

Commenting on the ongoing unrest in Syria, he said that the United States and its regional allies were pursuing a vicious agenda of “regime change” through fueling militancy.

The commentator went on to say that the Americans are preventing “a unified Iraq” by unleashing militant groups and spreading division.

Read the entire article

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Paying for the Neocon Moment: Sacrificing Lives, Liberty, and Wealth for Nothing

With President Barack Obama further tarnishing his Nobel Peace Prize by starting yet another Middle Eastern war, exuberant Neoconservatives claim their moment has arrived. And that was before Chuck Hagel, long the Neocon bĂȘte noire, was tossed underfoot. In fact, their moment has arrived, though not in the way they believe. The spectacle of Washington using the military in Iraq to destroy equipment provided by Washington in its last Iraq war illustrates the absurdity of the Neocons' claim that war-mongering and nation-building serve America's interests.
In 2001 President George W. Bush initiated what was supposed to be The Neocon Moment, projecting a swaggering global presence in which the U.S. would bomb, invade, occupy, and otherwise intervene whenever and for whatever reason it chose. Autocrats would flee, candies would be tossed, enemies would be defeated, flowers would bloom, allies would comply, cakewalks would be held, democrats would flourish, and the lion would lie down with the lamb.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Letting the Neocons Lead

In a rational political system, the American neocons would be the most discredited group in modern U.S. history. If not in the dock for complicity in war crimes – from Central America in the 1980s to Iraq last decade – they would surely not be well-regarded scholars at prominent think tanks and welcomed as op-ed columnists at major publications.

But the United States doesn’t currently have a rational political system. Instead of being prosecuted or ostracized, the neocons continue to dominate Official Washington’s foreign policy thinking. They and their “liberal interventionist” sidekicks continue to demonize disfavored “enemy” leaders – just as they did in Central America and Iraq – and bait doubters for “weakness” if they don’t climb onboard.

Friday, November 14, 2014

China – Russia Eurasian Trade Bloc Undermines Obama’s “Neocon Agenda”: Prof. Michael Hudson

The APEC meetings. In most such meetings for the last few years, including the G20 meetings (coming up in Brisbane this weekend) nothing really has been done. The United States is attending as the odd man out.
At issue are two different views of how economies should evolve. China is moving for its own trading bloc instead of being in a privatized pro-corporate bloc, it’s a mixed economy. So what you have is the Chinese economy growing very rapidly, and the American economy that’s been going flat.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

The Neocon Plan for War and More War

Buoyed by the Republican electoral victories, America’s neocons hope to collect their share of the winnings by pushing President Barack Obama into escalating conflicts around the world, from a new Cold War with Russia to hot wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and maybe Iran.

The new menu of neocon delights was listed by influential neocon theorist Max Boot in a blog post for Commentary magazine, an important outlet for neocon thinking. Boot argued that the Republicans – and thus the neocons – have earned a mandate on national security policy from the electoral repudiation of Obama’s Democratic Party.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Unvanquished Republican neocons surge back

For almost a decade, the neoconservatives who championed the 2003 invasion of Iraq have been widely regarded as a spent force. But with the Republicans’ sweeping victory in the American midterm elections, they may be about to stage a comeback. The result is that the Republican party is resurrecting the unilateral foreign policy doctrines that first took hold under President George W Bush and his vice-president Dick Cheney.

Read the entire article

Saturday, November 08, 2014

Putin demonized for thwarting neocon plan for global domination

The continuing attacks on Vladimir Putin and Russia by members of the western political, military and journalistic elite tell us one thing – the Russian President is doing a good job both for the people of his country and in the international arena.

For it is a rule which invariably holds true – if the Western elites praise the leader of a foreign country it means he is doing something which is good for those elites and bad for his country. If he’s demonized, as Putin is, it’s the other way round.

Read the entire article

Friday, November 07, 2014

Republican Senate takeover gives neocons, war hawks bully pulpit

Republican insiders say legislation already is in the works to pressure the White House into expanding the war against the Islamic State and increasing pressure on Russia and Iran, as the GOP takeover of the Senate provides neocons and war hawks with their first bully pulpit since the end of George W. Bush’s presidency.
While there will be pushback from isolationist voices in the party’s libertarian wing, it won’t take center stage, according to senior Republican congressional advisers who say that after years of standing by while the Obama administration has pursued a “lead from behind” foreign policy, the GOP is now poised to push the White House toward a more decisive leadership posture on the world stage.
Read the entire article

Thursday, November 06, 2014

Republican Hawks Already Have a War Plan for ISIS, Ukraine, and Obama

Call it the neoconservatives’ revenge. But even the dovish side of the GOP now acknowledges the election was a win for their party’s hawks.
The Republican victory in the 2014 midterms is less than 24 hours old. But already, the hawkish wing of the GOP is planning an ambitious battle plan to revamp American foreign policy: everything from arming Ukraine’s military to reviewing the ISIS war to investigating the U.S. intelligence community’s role in warming relations with Iran.

The Statist Roots Of The Neocon Ideology: Why Murray Rothbard Hated Max Lerner

All my life, it seems, I have hated the guts of Max Lerner. Now, make no mistake: there is nothing personal in this rancor. I have never met, nor have I ever had any personal dealings with, Max. No, my absolute loathing for Max Lerner is disinterested, cosmic in its grandeur. It’s just that ever since I was a toddler, this ugly homunculus, this pretentious jackass, has been there, towering over the American ideological scene. In the fifty-five years that I have been aware of Max’s presence, in all of his many permutations and combinations and seeming twists and turns, he has taken the totally repellent position at every step of the way. Thus:

Read the entire article

Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Ron Paul Makes Dire Prediction About Consequences of a Republican-Controlled Senate

Former Texas Congressman Ron Paul predicted that Republican control of the U.S. Senate would result in “expanded neocon wars in Syria and Iraq.”

“Boots on the ground are coming,” he wrote on Twitter.

Republican control of the Senate = expanded neocon wars in Syria and Iraq. Boots on the ground are coming!

Tuesday, November 04, 2014

The Neocon Moment: Showing Why Foreign Intervention Fails

With President Barack Obama further tarnishing his Nobel Peace Prize by starting yet another Middle Eastern war, exuberant Neoconservatives claim their moment has arrived. And it has: Neocon claims that war-mongering and nation-building serve America’s interests have become obviously ever more absurd.
In 2001 President George W. Bush initiated what was supposed to be The Neocon Moment, projecting a swaggering global presence in which the U.S. would bomb, invade, occupy, and otherwise intervene whenever and for whatever reason it chose. As I wrote for Forbes online:  “Autocrats would flee, candies would be tossed, enemies would be defeated, flowers would bloom, allies would comply, cakewalks would be held, democrats would flourish, and the lion would lie down with the lamb.”