Empire Builders. Neoconservatives and Their Blueprint for US Power (Neocon 101)

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | 27.08.03 | staff, various interviews

[u-89]

The above are selected quotes. Follow article source link to the intro and you'll find the various realted topic links which make up the full article.

[Mr. Bird]

I took the quiz and they labeled me a "realist". Along with Powell and Ike. Ack.

[BlackElk]

For the sake of future FR conversation, this article is a good starting point on what term means what, not infallible by any means, but a good starting point.

Start at the end with Max Boot (with whom I am utterly unfamiliar), the "self-described neo-conservative." His heroes: Wilson and Kissinger. Wilson????? Wilson was a schizophrenic politico with support from Klansmen like McAdoo on the one hand and grand visions of the League of Nations on the other. Wilson was an internationalist and no sort of conservative. Kissinger, Mr. Detente???? Mr. SALT???? I don't think so. Not a conservative but another internationalist. I will tell you out of the gate that if the ONLY alternatives were internationalism, more properly speaking "globaloney" and isolationism, then isolationism is number 1 with a bullet (you should pardon the expression) on this week's top 40. Fortunately, isolationism is a very distant second when outpaced by interventionism (on US terms when we feel like it for reasonable causes).

To Walter Russell Mead of the, ahem, Council on Foreign Relations, and no mere member but a frequent spokesthing, this conservative and most whom he knows would undress at high noon in the public square (offending public taste as well as public morals) before aiming for democracy in the Middle East. A conservative must be at least a skeptic on globaloney agendae and probably its outright enemy in 90%+ of cases. Given the wild popularity of the looney tunes led by Muhammed el Rootie Kazootie and his legion of child butchers by homicide bombings of school buses, I am not eager for Middle Eastern "democracy" any time soon. I miss the Shah of Iran. He was a far better model.

Michael Ledeen can call himself whatever he wants to call himself. He shifts around so much that he probably doesn't know what he is. In any event his quote is his opinion on what history has been and not what he thinks it SHOULD have been.

Donald Kagan will probably take Robert Kagan to the woodshed if he reads that nonsense about "liberal internationalism" much less the support for Lieberman/McCain.

As to other points, benevolent hegemon, perhaps. Empire???? No! Favor forcing regime changes? You bet! Remaking East Kaboomistan in the American image??? No! Rebuiilding East Kaboomistan with American money???? Absolutely not!

Conservatives and neocons favor a robust American military AND the willingness, yea, the eagerness to use America's unrivalled military strength reactively but preferably pre-emptively in interventions where desireable. Paleos do not. Paleos and conservatives do NOT favor nation-building, nor the abuse of the military and its personnel as social workers in Haiti or Kosovo or anywhere. Neoconservatives may favor nation-building. The old folks did work for LBJ and the Great Society in the pre-communist, pre-pervert Democrat Party and it would be in line with LBJism as reflected in his goofier Vietnam speeches. None of these groups favor empire.

Aggression and NOT appeasement and NOT containment (other than temporary while busy elsewhere) are indeed the conservative policy toward states and movements hostile to US interests and have been since Pearl Harbor and ever will be. High tech weaponry, reconfiguration for rapid deployment, greater flexibility, preventive strikes: Absolutely. Not limited to the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia, either.

[BlackElk]

On each of the ten questions, I looked in vain for the right answer: Nuke 'em 'til they glow. Nowehere to be found in the canned answers to ten questions. Took 'em best answers available and got labeled "neo-conservative" along with Ronaldus Maximus.

[Mr. Bird]

I know. Not one question presented me with a satisfying answer. I know they are just for entertainment purposes, but I am about as close to Powell in my politics as Reagan was to (FD)Roosevelt.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Neocon.

[Poohbah]

Neocon, merchant, shopkeeper...lot of codewords all of a sudden :o)

[hchutch]

Sounds like a lot of common sense to me. A realistic view of the world, IMHO.

[1rudeboy]

I took the quiz, the screen went blank, and then I got a message from George Soros that said, "We'll be in touch."

[St.Chuck]

Bump

[Shermy]

On and on about the "neo-con" label, never asking the selected "neo-con" if he or she is one. A lefty stab at trying to demonize that which it doesn't understand.

The historical parallel is simple, but unsatisfactory to lib pundits. The parallel is Liberal, Kennedy, Johnson, etc.

[rdb3]

Help! HELP!

Mommy, there's a neocon under my bed!

[hchutch]

LOL!

[rmlew]

A bunch of leftists attack neocons. Nothing new. It was leftists who definde the term neconservative.
As for the article, it oversimplyfies neconservatism as ne-Wilsonianism. It ignores the domestic elements.

[Texas_Dawg]

I took the quiz, the screen went blank, and then I got a message from George Soros that said, "We'll be in touch."

You think that's bad?? I took the quiz and all of the sudden this popped up:

[nuffsenuff]

Damn, I guess I'm a Neocon.

[Shermy]

The "Neo-con" rubric of the left is there attempt to establish a definable bogeyman with a "conservative" appellation. Inherent in the project is their occupation with such definition so to avoid having to consider the merits of any particular foreign action, and to avoid reconsideration of their anti-american historical narrative which requires any evil in the world to be reponsive to an American malfeasance. Thus, for example, you'll will never see them quote Osama. Although relevant, quoting Osama does nothing but challenge their prejudices, an endeavor they are wholly uninterested in. Instead they are more interested in preserving their own contrarian and reflexive anti-American identity with the mirror of foreign events fashioned to their convenient assumptions.

The "neo-con" explanation started with crypto-anti-semitism selective identification with certain supposed Jews in the administration. This was generated by La Rouche and perhaps a Buchanan piece or two. Confronted with non-Jews like Cheney and Rice, and unable to sustain a totally paranoid racist discourse holding that Ledeen, et al. is pulling Cheney's strings (though some Arabs and English can maintain this fiction), some libs adopted the "neo-con" rubric, but expanded it to Cheney, etc. Perhaps the commonest characteristic of this identification/definition project is the avoidance of asking any of these people if they are "neo-cons", let alone analyzing their views in context of Wahhabism, Caliphatism, ME politics, Kashmir, etc.

The historical parallel of the retinue of ideas they define is not only Wilson, but other self-identified non-conservatives such as JFK and LBJ. Also, the views of the defined "neo-cons" is not different than modern libs who want to "change" the world, they just don't like the tactics, and protraying America as a beneficient or even neutral actor interferes with their meticulous grooming of their anti-american historical narrative, a project which is threatened by reality and pesky foreign actors who aren't saying what they wish they would say.

[rdb3]

Neoconservative

Neoconservatives…

• Want the US to be the world's unchallenged superpower
• Share unwavering support for Israel
• Support American unilateral action
• Support preemptive strikes to remove perceived threats to US security
• Promote the development of an American empire
• Equate American power with the potential for world peace
• Seek to democratize the Arab world
• Push regime change in states deemed threats to the US or its allies

Historical neoconservative: President Teddy Roosevelt

Modern neoconservative: President Ronald Reagan

_________

That's interesting.

[ninenot]

I take it that Billy Kristol's position is anathema to you, as it is to me.

[_Jim]

Neoconservatives and Their Blueprint for US Power

Alex 'royal pinhead' Jones is BIG on toutiong this angle these days ...