End of the neo-cons?

Parent Cafe
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<p>A hard-hitting editorial in the Toronto Star today. I wonder what our resident conservatives think about this. Agree, disagree that neo-conservatives have a “bankrupt” theology now?</p>

<p>Here’s the beginning:</p>

<p>End of the Neo-Cons
Nov. 5, 2006. 08:16 AM
DAVID OLIVE</p>

<p>“Every dogma has its day.”
— Abraham Rotstein</p>

<p>"America! America! God mend thine ev’ry flaw;
Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law!<br>
— Katharine Lee Bates, “America The Beautiful” (1893)</p>

<p>Whether or not the Republicans lose control of one or both houses of the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, the neo-conservative vision that has guided American foreign policy since 2001 has run its course. The neo-cons’ grand design lies in ruins, having accomplished nothing other than to shrink America’s stature in the world.</p>

<p>The great unwinding of the American “benign global hegemony” first heralded by neo-cons William Kristol and Robert Kagan in 1996 will commence after the election, when America’s political leadership will abandon Iraq and the neo-cons.</p>

<p>The neo-cons’ starting point, of course, was the Americanization of Iraq — the “easy win” that would trigger rogue states from the Middle East to the Korean peninsula to fall in line with American values of capitalism, democracy and pro-Israel policies.</p>

<p>But the Iraq conflict has proved unwinnable. And as handmaidens to a $300-billion (U.S.) catastrophe in Iraq that has cost the lives of at least 400,000 Iraqis and almost 3,000 American soldiers, and which ranks as the worst American foreign-policy disaster since Vietnam, the neo-cons have irretrievably lost their credibility.</p>

<p>By Christmas or soon thereafter, a White House that has run out of options on Iraq will begin to cut and run, pronouncing favourably on an exit plan that is now in the final stages of completion by a team led by James Baker, former U.S. secretary of state and a close friend of the Bush family, and Lee Hamilton, a respected former congressman and Democrat who co-chaired the 9/11 Commission.</p>

<p>Having already scrapped his Iraq mantra of “stay the course” late last month, U.S. President George W. Bush will adopt the most substantive points of the Baker-Hamilton blueprint for extricating America from the Iraq quagmire with as much dignity as possible. Baker, despised by the neo-cons for his nuanced, diplomatic approach to geopolitics, has already indicated that the options under consideration by his team are all variations of withdrawal. The only questions are how rapidly the Americans will leave, and which honeyed words the Bush administration will use in trying to dress up failure as success.</p>

<p>Withdrawal from Iraq can’t come a moment too soon for a Republican Party paying a heavy price for allowing itself to be hijacked by one of the most naïve world views to come down the pike since Henry Ford chartered a shipload of peace activists and set sail for Europe in 1915. There isn’t a Republican drawing breath, war hawk John McCain included, who wants to campaign in 2008 on a diplomatic and military horror show produced and directed by a Republican White House and a GOP-controlled Congress.
How long it takes for the neo-cons’ influence to shrivel up completely is a matter of speculation, of course. Their clubhouse, the American Enterprise Institute, isn’t in trouble with its landlord yet. William Kristol, son of neo-con godhead Irving Kristol and “Dan Quayle’s brain” as chief-of-staff to the former vice-president, remains editor of Rupert Murdoch’s Weekly Standard, the club’s newsletter, and a ubiquitous talking head despite his role as the galvanizing force of a bankrupt theology…</p>

<p><a href=“Breaking News - Headlines & Top Stories | The Star”>Breaking News - Headlines & Top Stories | The Star;

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<p>momof2inca, I’m not one of the resident conservatives but I read that column by David Olive yesterday (we live in Toronto) and I found it very interesting. He’s mainly a business writer for the Star but often writes about political influences on the economy. I’m not sure about the “bankrupt theology” but I do know that many, if not most, of our friends and family in the U.S. who are Republicans are as unhappy with the current administration and the mess they’ve created, as the Democrats among them are.</p>

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<p>Ironically, the term ‘neo-con’ or ‘new conservative’ refers to former liberals who became conservatives. In fact, the ‘neo-con’ movement was founded primarily by these liberals. I think it was Irving Kristol who stated that a neo-con was a “liberal mugged by reality”.</p>

<p>But, sigh…I assume the writer of the article is making perjorative use of the term neo-con. I avoid reading overtly partisan op-eds, and I consider myself more of a socially liberal fiscal conservative rather than a ‘neo-con’. I also don’t consider my political leanings to be fairly described as a ‘theology’ or having to do with my spirituality at all. So, I’ll pass on the ‘bankrupt theology’ question. </p>

<p>But I do encourage all to look into the history of the neoconservative movement. You may be surprised.</p>

<p>Also…given that the publisher (Rupert Murdoch) of the neo-con ‘club newsletter’ has endorsed Hillary Clinton, I wonder how it is that anyone could ponder if neoconservatism is on its way out?</p>

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<p>Yes, David Olive needs to educate himself. Too many consider “neocon” to be synonymous with “conservative Jew,” these days. The list of thoughtful Democrats whose party left them “neocons” over the course of the latter half of the last century is long–we could start with Ronald Reagan.</p>

<p>A couple of interesting books, if anyone is interested: “My Love Affair With America,” by Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol’s longtime partner in the invention of neoconservativism, and “An Old Wife’s Tale,” by his brilliant wife Midge Dector. “Why Americans Hate Politics” by the usually imbecilic E. J. Dionne remains among the best histories of that formative stage of American politics.</p>

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<p>I had no idea there was a grand strategy. I always thought that we went into Iraq because the flaccid liberals and UN hadn’t been able to get a weapons inspector in there for several years. And, considering the interesting demonstration put on by 19 middle eastern weasels with boxcutters a few Septembers ago, it seemed a logical place to start applying some energy to protect ourselves from something potentially worse. Had we had a continuous inspection presence, we wouldn’t be there today. </p>

<p>This monday morning quarterbacking is reminiscent of Notre Dame coach Ty Willinghams remarks several year ago…that he “wished the alumni and fans would send him the winning plays and strategies on Tuesdays before the game instead of Monday’s afterwards” .</p>

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<p>^chuckle :)</p>

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<p>Read the PNAC from 1999.</p>

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<p>Reading more than the principles will reveal the entire grand strategy for global geopolical direction in the 21st century.</p>

<p>And while many of the original PNAC neocons are Israeli hawks, most of the names are not, and were never, liberals. Look at the entire list of original signers, and you will see some very familiar names: individuals very hooked into this administration (including the warhawks, Cheney and Rummy).</p>

<p>Interesting that some, like ***uyama, have ditched the neocons, now that Iraq is such a mess.</p>

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<p>The neo-con movement pre-dates your information allmusic. Think Cold War.</p>

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<p>I know all about the Straussians.</p>

<p>The PNACers evolved from there. But this document was the way they formally declared their warmongering intentions.</p>

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<p>I get it allmusic. :slight_smile: But come on, you gotta think it’s a little funny that conservatism didn’t become ‘such a bad thing’ until a few liberals and socialists jumped on board back in the day. If the neo-conservative movement has become so offensive, well liberals only have to look to themselves… (jk)</p>