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Title: The Neo-Con Aftermath
Source:
Falls Church News Press
URL Source: http://www.fcnp.com/commentary/nati ... 714-the-neo-con-aftermath.html
Published: Jul 21, 2011
Author: Helen Thomas
Post Date: 2011-07-21 20:51:57 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 4344
Comments: 15
Where are the neo-conservatives who brought on this economic and political mess?
They are evidently hiding in their think tanks or taking asylum in academia. Anyway, they are in safe havens, satisfied that they achieved their stated goals of regime change by toppling their nemesis - Saddam Hussein. Though none of those neo-cons wore the country's uniform, they pushed others to get into the fight.
It was the neo-cons who decided America should have an empire in the 21st century. Their design for the world has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths - not to mention the wounded and displaced.
Many of the neo-cons may have been kicked out of top government positions, but their influence in former President George W. Bush's administration was enormous. They convinced Bush of the need for torture. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama has not ended the unlawful practice.
It's not surprising that the neo-con aspiration to get Saddam coincided with Israel's purpose, or that Saddam was accused of holding weapons of mass destruction. Iraq had none. Hans Blix, the former head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, begged Bush to let him go into Iraq to prove Iraq had no such lethal weapons. Bush refused. He wanted to invade Iraq.
Bush once told an interviewer that only war presidents are remembered in history. He will go down in history all right. Ironically, Bush and his cohorts - and the world in fact - know that only Israel had a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East. Top American officials, from Obama on down, have lost their credibility by refusing to say that Israel is a nuclear power.
The next target for the neo-con empire builders is Iran, another major enemy of Israel. If Iran succeeds in developing a nuclear bomb, the United States is supposed to attack Iran. So far, Obama has resisted the neo-con orders, but who knows for how long.
Their agenda was laid out in Project for the New American Century. Their "Statement of Principles" promotes increasing military spending; modernizing our armed forces; strengthening ties to democratic allies to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values; promoting the causes of political and economic freedom abroad; and accepting responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, prosperity and principles. These are goals not easily won without war.
By the end of 2006, PNAC was "reduced to a voice-mail box and a ghostly website," with "a single employee" "left to wrap things up," according to the BBC News. In 2006, Gary Schmitt, former executive director of the PNAC, stated that PNAC had come to a natural end.
The PNAC was a platform for a new American colonialism - and the neo-cons continue to lobby in Congress. They also are welcomed on the pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post for their ultra-right points of view.
Others on the neo-con team include Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Kagan, both former Reaganites and Bush propagandists.
The neo-cons stated that the failure to depose Saddam would have resulted in a "decisive surrender in the international war on terrorism." They did not estimate the cost in American lives and money - and they probably didn't care.
Critics of the neo-cons have called them "chicken-hawks - men who have never seen the horror of war but are in love with the idea of war." They accuse the neo-cons of taking it a step further than the conservatives, who believe in maintaining a strong national defense. The neo-cons can only succeed in promoting their goals by blurring the lines between policing the world and maintain a strong national defense.
While many Republicans have begun to question the old neo-con foreign policy consensus that dominated Bush's GOP, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is the new neo-con hopeful.
While the neo-cons have achieved some of their goals, they have betrayed the good will of Americans and the decency of the country. They should be ashamed!
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Critics of the neo-cons have called them "chicken-hawks - men who have never seen the horror of war but are in love with the idea of war." They accuse the neo-cons of taking it a step further than the conservatives, who believe in maintaining a strong national defense.
This is a fair summary of my views. Krauthammer is a neo-con.
Replies to Comment # 1.
#8. To: Fred RED Mertz (#1) (Edited)
Fred RED AYERABID Mertz
This is a fair summary of my views.
The New Theocracy (( neocoms ))
For the last several years (during the Bush Administration) we have been treated to a newly coined word in the political lexicon, to wit: Neoconservative (neocon). The word has been used to describe those in both the political arena and society as a whole who have previously adhered to a leftist (liberal?) oriented political philosophy but who have undergone an epiphany of sorts and now support a more conservative political philosophy. These would include ›•Ÿ™”‘£ who emerged from the "academic" system as a dedicated Marxist but made the political journey through conservativism to libertarianism. Another wag defines "neocon" as a liberal who has been mugged by reality. Examples of this designation would include such bureaucrats as Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle and academics such as David Horowitz and Victor Davis Hanson. With the recent capture of the legislative branch of the U.S. government and the distinct possibility of the capture as well of the executive branch in 2008 by the Democratic Party the likelihood of a new political animal assuming power must be addressed. The "Neocoms". They are already deeply entrenched in academia and thus the mainstream media due to the influence of the major journalism schools. It is described by David Horowitz as a religious movement.
The "Neocoms".
They are already deeply entrenched in academia and thus the mainstream media due to the influence of the major journalism schools.
It is described by David Horowitz as a religious movement ...
The Neo-communist left opposes America’s commitment to freedom and capitalism domestically as well as supporting (sometimes “critically”) America’s declared external enemies not because of what America does, but because of what they think America is.
The Neo-communist left is impervious to facts because it is a political messianism, in essence a religious movement.
Its delusions of social redemption are fed on a rich diet of anti-American myths. These myths were once generated in institutions funded by the Communist Party and other marginal radical sects. But that has all changed with the long march of the left during the last thirty years through America’s institutions of higher learning.
The Neo-communist left is now entrenched on the faculties of America’s elite universities, where it is a “hegemonic” force.
It has converted America’s elite universities into a political base for its radical and anti-American agendas. *
In the present war with radical Islam ... [which the Neocoms either ignore or tacitly support] --- this poses a problem Americans can continue to ignore only at their own peril, and which sooner or later they must address.
http://fightingintheshade.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID={AD729DCC-EF8C-4BEC-A8B0- B459457A615D}
IT could be a dog carried virus !
red fred is a big fan of democracy now !
#11. To: Fred Mertz (#1)
This is a fair summary of my views. Krauthammer is a neo-con.
Labels don't help when discussing a person's character; I like Krauthammer and don't like Rumsfeld, Chertoff or any of the Bush National Security team which is why I departed government service early in 2001 after tilting at windmills.
They gave Bush bad advice.
Helen is a bit overly dramatic and illogical in her accusations, however.
#13. To: Fred Mertz (#1)
Krauthammer is a neo-con.
Which is nothing more than a communist that has evolved into a fascist.
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