Posted on 03/08/2003 12:36:33 PM PST by Destro
The problem with Bush is not that he has chosen to take on Iraq, a good mission, but that he has chosen to take on Iraq following the advice and strategy of the neo-cons who I think are as anti-American now as they were when they were first plain old university Marxists. Anti-American? Neo-cons, at first glance may seem 100% patriotic but they are not.
Patriots are men who are by definition nationalist or just men of action concerned with their own nation's well being. Neo-cons are just like the multi-literalist socialists (Clinton and Blair's so called Third Way Leftism) with one exception. While the Third Way Socialists seek to use the UN as the world unifier the Neo-Cons seek to make the USA the world unifier and that is a just as dangerous and wrong.
Again, Iraq is a good mission to approve of as a patriot but linking it to some sort of mission to remake the Middle East is a Neo-Con cum Marxist creed that if not destined to fail in the short term would cost America dearly in the long run.
In any case, whether the patroits like or not, the final result of this war will be an futile and decades long crusade to "remodel" the Middle East. Under a world policing policy (like we have today in foreign policy), such a result is almost inevitable on the theory that "we can't just walk away" after we defeat Saddam.
Consider the following examples of how the League of Nations was ruined and how at times France took the lead in its destruction.
In 1928, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia, complained to the League of illegal arms shipment to Hungary. Specifically, Mussolini’s Italy had sent five rail cars of weapons to Hungary. The League of Nations dispatched inspectors to Hungary to investigate. Arriving too late to know, the investigators concluded there’d been no arms sent. The three countries were not fooled. They reasonably decided that the League was not going to protect them. France did not directly cause this failure. But the parallels to today’s bumbling inspectors in Iraq and the anxiety they are leading to in countries around Iraq are striking. What countries will feel safe if the slob countries of Europe, Belgium, France, and Germany, succeed in their policy of saving Saddam by changing the subject to the idea that America is to be feared but not Saddam. The self-delusion that lame inspectors in Iraq are adequate for peace may work for hashish-addled minds in effete Europe, an area of the world so spent it refuses to reproduce. But small Arab and oil rich countries in the Gulf may choose to buy nukes if the international community is not going to help even protect them from the monster in Baghdad.
In the continuing march of “Peace through Fantasy”, history also provides the example of the Kellogg-Briand Pact which outlawed war in 1929. The French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand and the American Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg put this charade together. Note that the bamboozled Kellogg was rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize. Which proves that former president Carter isn’t the first American buffoon to be regaled in Europe for his gullibility on war and peace. Possibly France at the next UN conference on Iraq will invoke the Kellog-Briand Pact since the French Foreign Affairs Minister and sanctimonious twit Domenica de Villepin is so fond of telling the world how much war is a failure. Notice that he never remarks that he's obviously willing to accept peace on Saddam's terms.
And here is another example of France’s pretentious and historic leadership leading to disastrous consequences. In 1935, when the League Council attempted to deal strongly with Italy’s attack on Abyssinia (Ethiopia), the French Prime Minister Laval undermined all efforts and worked instead toward a deal that favored Mussolini. The plan Laval developed and promoted partitioned Absyssinia, the victim of Fascist militarism! This sad chapter in selfish and craven French diplomacy also contributed to making the League of Nations a joke that rewarded aggressors rather than punishing them.
Jump forward to today.
Just a few months ago France sold military equipment to Saddam. Successfully using cutouts, they have plausible denials of knowing anything about it, just like Saddam does with his terrorist connections. Also, Germany recently sold nerve agent precursors to North Korea and has historically been the leading seller of WMD to Saddam. Meanwhile the masses in these two countries have their moral mavens continue to preach and walk for peace while their big businesses sell weapons to dictators unconstrained by laws, voters, or morals.
With France playing its historically failed character of the bumbling but know-it-all leader, and Saddam’s butt boy Schroeder playing such a prominent role in undermining collective security, we can all see that the UN is about to be destroyed just as the League of Nations was. Unless France ends its public stalling and support for Saddam, we must seriously consider getting out of and closing the UN on US soil. If other nations want to rejoin it, fine. Let them open it in Lagos, Nigeria, and the member nations can pay for these garrulous grandstanders who provide nothing that secures the peace. No US tax money should go to support this dangerous den of dilettantes steadfastly supporting the likes of Saddam. We spend enough money fixing the harm these other countries create to also subsidies this folly too.
Yea like Germany and Japan eh? I hadn't heard this new slur, Neocon, used so much until Iraq came up. Now it's some secret master plan. Give me a break. The reason Saddam is going down is because of WMD and 9/11. Do you remember seeing pictures of all the attempts and trials in the al qeada notebooks found in the training camps. Or the video of them gassing a puppy. WE DON'T WANT TO BECOME SADDAM'S PUPPYS. Any benefits to the people of Iraq will be a bonus, but it is not the main reason.
To be on their good side, you must watch for the moment and grasp it passionately; but do be prepared to swing with them, because in their view, that is what is referred to as being "logical."
I hadn't heard this new slur, Neocon, used so much until Iraq came up. Better late to the issue than never, eh?
Now it's some secret master plan. Give me a break. I made no refrence to some occult like master plan. It is the world view of neo-cons stated plainly. Some neo-cons even write that borders don't matter anymore.
The reason Saddam is going down is because of WMD and 9/11. Do you remember seeing pictures of all the attempts and trials in the al qeada notebooks found in the training camps. Or the video of them gassing a puppy. WE DON'T WANT TO BECOME SADDAM'S PUPPYS. Any benefits to the people of Iraq will be a bonus, but it is not the main reason.
Liek I said, I am for the Iraq mission. It is how we are going about the Iraq mission, following a neo-con game plan that bothers me, especially the role they see for America the week after we win the war.
I guess it's just the disparaging tone of NEOCON as if it's wrong to think of some idealistic vision of what might be if things go well. Why can't Iraq succeed? It is a secular country with very old roots. With a constitution, rule of law, and an independent judiciary they just might, and I hope we help them all we can.
Thank God Pat Buchanan is listened to by only 17 idiots on the planet, all of whom pollute this board.
Pat Buchanan brought his ignominy on himself.
I mean to use it in just such a tone. They disgust me.
It's called strategic interests, I think they are mutual, if Japan asked us to leave we would, just like the Phillipines. I wouldn't really call it occupation at this point. In fact occupation is another one of those words that invokes the wrong impression. I doubt if the nations where we have troops around the world look at us as occupiers, more like protectors don't you think?
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