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Book slams Bush's global crusade
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | June 2, 2005 | ROBERT NOVAK

Posted on 06/02/2005 2:35:08 PM PDT by iconoclast

Over the last two years, I have found increasing numbers of conservatives deeply concerned by U.S. military intervention in Iraq. They voted for and admire President Bush, but were profoundly disturbed by his second inaugural address pledging to spread democracy worldwide. Now, there is an important new book that eloquently puts in perspective their alarms about America's course in the post-Cold War world.

Sands of Empire by Robert W. Merry, a respected Washington journalist, warns of the United States as the ''Crusader State'' transporting American exceptionalism around the world. The book, to be published this month, contends this crusade threatens ''the American Republic, the greatest civic achievement in the history of mankind.''

This is no anti-Bush political screed seeking Democratic gain and Republican loss in Iraq's casualty lists. Merry over the years has been an objective journalist but considers himself a conservative and is said by friends to be a Republican who voted for Bush. What worries Merry is that Bush mixes the moralism of Woodrow Wilson and the exceptionalism of Theodore Roosevelt to produce fatal U.S. global ambitions.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Philosophy; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bookreview; bush; iraq; neocons; novak; paxamericana; robertmerry; sandsofempire
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1 posted on 06/02/2005 2:35:10 PM PDT by iconoclast
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To: iconoclast
What we have basically is a lack of resolve in achieving our long term objectives.

You can't appease the left and defend the country at the same time.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

2 posted on 06/02/2005 2:38:18 PM PDT by expatguy (http://laotze.blogspot.com/)
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To: iconoclast
Robert W. Merry, a respected Washington journalist

Sorry--I couldn't read beyond this phrase.

3 posted on 06/02/2005 2:41:01 PM PDT by basil (Exercise your Second Amendment--buy another gun today!)
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To: iconoclast
"Respected American journalist":

In the anti-American lexicon, this term means a cowardly, isolationist Euroweenie-lookalike and actalike who tries to bring Neville Chamberlainesque grovelling to America in our time.

Novak has his strengths but a vigorous and effective foreign policy, particularly against the Islamofascisti of the Arab and Farsi people, is certainly not one of them.

But how do I really feel?????

4 posted on 06/02/2005 2:58:49 PM PDT by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline of the Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club)
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To: basil

Novak has never been in favor of the war---neither did Tucker Carlson, which has totally made Crossfire a joke for 3 years....(not that it wasn't before...)


5 posted on 06/02/2005 3:07:47 PM PDT by Txsleuth (Mark Levin for Supreme Court Justice)
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To: expatguy
What we have basically is a lack of resolve in achieving our long term objectives.

This was my biggest concern when this all started. Sure, maybe it's a good idea, but if you miscalculate the resolve of the nation to carry through, we're better off not starting at all.

6 posted on 06/02/2005 3:11:28 PM PDT by nosofar
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To: iconoclast

RealPolitik did reasonably well in containing the USSR and international communism, but was an utter failure when confronting Islamofascist terrorism. The other problem with attacking the Bush policies respecting the WOT is that they are working so well. Iran and Syria are isolated. Democracy movements are gaining strength in the Middle East. It's no walk in the park, but progress is being made for the first time that gets at the root of terrorism.


7 posted on 06/02/2005 3:16:11 PM PDT by Faraday
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To: iconoclast

just another slam in a long list of slam's.


8 posted on 06/02/2005 3:19:47 PM PDT by realman
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To: expatguy
You can't appease the left and defend the country at the same time.

How did the left get into this?

Did that pesky knee jerk again?

9 posted on 06/02/2005 4:00:08 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: basil
Sorry--I couldn't read beyond this phrase.

Who DO you read?

10 posted on 06/02/2005 4:02:45 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: expatguy

Novak is a bore. I don't know a single conservative who can honestly call him or herself a conservative who thinks a proactive defense, such as we used in Iraq, in the war on terror is anything other than a brilliant tactic. Novak thinks because he talks with a few country club Goldwater types in Manhattan chattering circles and with a smattering of Buchananite dim bulbs, he's in touch with what conservatives are thinking. Novak should get away from the cocktail parties and Washington hacks he thinks represent middle American thinking and actually get in touch with what REAL AMERICANS and REAL CONSERVATIVES think.


11 posted on 06/02/2005 4:04:20 PM PDT by MikeA
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To: Faraday
Iran and Syria are isolated.

What does that mean?

12 posted on 06/02/2005 4:05:58 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: Faraday
but progress is being made for the first time that gets at the root of terrorism.

A very troubling and puzzling statement.

Dozens of innocent citizens and too many GI's are being killed daily.

Terrorist recruitment is apparently bottomless.

Our recruitment is in the toilet.

I wish I could live in your world!

13 posted on 06/02/2005 4:10:31 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: iconoclast
Dozens of innocent citizens and too many GI's are being killed daily.

Terrorist recruitment is apparently bottomless.

Our recruitment is in the toilet.

I wish I could live in your world!

And we are glad we are steering clear of yours.

APf

14 posted on 06/02/2005 4:26:59 PM PDT by APFel (This space for sale or rent)
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To: expatguy
What we have basically is a lack of resolve in achieving our long term objectives.

Very high sounding verbiage to describe jousting at windmills.

15 posted on 06/02/2005 4:52:48 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: APFel
I wish I could live in your world!

And we are glad we are steering clear of yours.

You avoid reality at your own peril and only in the short run.

16 posted on 06/02/2005 4:58:34 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: iconoclast

Merry's only evident claim to journalistic fame is as publisher of "Congressional Quarterly." (Oh--he wrote a book about some journalists too.)He has no apparent background, experience, or expertise in matters of foreign policy--like Robert Novak, one might add.


17 posted on 06/02/2005 5:14:04 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: iconoclast

What is it with libs talking about conservatives who have come to oppose Bush over Iraq or the last couple years?
Why don't I know any of them?


18 posted on 06/02/2005 5:17:51 PM PDT by FierceKulak
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To: hinckley buzzard
He has no apparent background, experience, or expertise in matters of foreign policy--like Robert Novak, one might add.

You're wrong, of course.

But would you prefer I post a few Arnaud de Borchgrave articles?

19 posted on 06/02/2005 5:22:29 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: iconoclast

Everyone needs to wake up! This is not President Bush's Global Crusade. It is our Crusade. We have to defeat the Communist enemy that is trying to beat us from the inside.


20 posted on 06/02/2005 5:23:13 PM PDT by JOE43270 (JOE43270 America voted and said we are One Nation Under God with Liberty and Justice for All.)
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