Vision of the Neocons Stays Fixed on Making Hard Choices

[Dover]

Vision of the neocons stays fixed on making hard choices

Oliver Burkeman in Washington
Tuesday September 23, 2003
The Guardian

Every Tuesday morning during the Iraq war Washington's opinion-makers and journalists knew there was only one place to be: at the "black-coffee briefings" held at the American Enterprise Institute, a fortress-like building on M and 17th streets, opposite the main offices of the National Geographic magazine.
Technically, AEI is a thinktank. More than that, though, it is the headquarters of the intellectual movement known as neoconservatism. Its staff includes famous names such as Richard Perle, Irving Kristol and Newt Gingrich. The magazine Weekly Standard, the neocon bible, is published at the same address.

Black coffee was not strictly compulsory at the briefings - adding milk was allowed - but it did seem a particularly apt metaphor. The neocons felt they were delivering stern, sobering truths, wake-up calls with all the kick of a strong espresso: that liberating Iraq and making an awesome show of American power was vital for the US and the world, that democracy would spread through the region as dictators fell like dominoes.

Resistance would be minimal: the war could be fought, most argued, with the lean hi-tech military championed by Donald Rumsfeld. But not with the UN and Europe, who did not have the stomach for the new era of muscular American power. But that was then; September in Washington finds the ultra-hawks in ferment. They confess to being taken aback by events in Iraq. Some are responding by arguing that the terrorist attacks on US troops there may actually be, counterintuitively, a good thing.

In interviews with the Guardian they expressed deep scepticism about President Bush's new overtures to the UN, accusing the White House of a lack of commitment - and, most surprising of all, rounding on their former hero Donald Rumsfeld. The distance between the president and the movement widely credited with persuading him to go to war in the first place has never seemed greater.

..snip..

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

..MORE..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1047725,00.html

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. AEI's getting nervous of their take over!

[Dover]

10. AEI Game Plan

Michael Ledeen, the "Freedom Fellow" of the American Enterprise Institute, the man who Carl Rove, known as "Bush's brains," identified as the only person he got foreign policy advice from, and a close ideological associate of PNAC (from his most recent book, The War Against the Terror Masters) states:


"Creative destruction is our middle name. Both within our society and abroad. We tear down the old order every day, from business to science, literature, art, architecture and cinema to politics and the law. Our enemies have always hated this whirlwind of energy and creativity, which menaces their traditions (whatever they may be) and shames them for their inability to keep pace. Seeing America undo traditional societies, they fear us, for they do not wish to be undone. They cannot feel secure so long as we are there, for our very existence - our existence, not our politics - threatens their legitimacy. They must attack us in order to survive, just as we must destroy them to advance our historic mission."

This is the view of America and the world that holds sway in the current administration. We must be realistic about this. The man closest to our president, Carl Rove, says that Michael Ledeen is the foreign policy guru he listens to. If this is not the America that we want, we must be prepared to act unceasingly and unselfishly to reclaim the country that has been hijacked by these political pirates. If we fail to act, we will have lost more than our retirement funds; we will have lost more than the next election; we will have lost the soul of our nation and the hope of people everywhere.

[hang a left]

11. "We tear down the old order every day,

from business to science, literature, art architecture and cinema to politics and the law.........."They must attack us in order to survive, just as we must destoy them to advance our historic mission"

OMG, these people are out of their minds. This is the militant arm of the New World Order.

[teryang]

12. They are fascists

...Ledeen is a fascist pure and simple. The fact that PNAC and our current regime follow his lead speaks for itself.

[SOS]

15. Ledeen is a fascist

His 1972 book "Universal Fascism" gives insights as to the foundations of the Bush administration. Please look at the link below. Very informative!

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4275.htm

[teryang]

21. Thanks for the link

I'd read it before but it is always useful to review.

This is the comment that gets me:

<They agree with Trotsky on permanent revolution, violent as well as intellectual. >

This is technically incorrect. The PNACers are forces of reaction. I've really found little to substantiate the alleged Trotskyite origins. I haven't seen anything relating Struass to Trotsky other than he is an incurable elitist.

[Dover]

2. Well I learned something new. Perle, Wolfowitz were once Dems?!

And it seems all the Dems-turned-neocons were Scoop Jackson students...another noteworthy piece of info. (you MUST read info on who Scoop Jackson was...posted below).

Until I got to that part of the article I was thinking that the neocon's desire for more troops in Iraq sounded very much like what the current Dem leadership has been suggesting...

Some info on Scoop Jackson:

Twin Towers of Power (Jackson and Magnuson)

SCOOP AND MAGGIE -- THE NAMES SEEM INSEPARABLE, AS FAMILIAR AND COMFORTABLE TOGETHER AS OTHER FAMOUS PAIRS OF THE 1960S LIKE HUNTLEY AND BRINKLEY, OR EVEN BATMAN AND ROBIN. But Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson and Warren G. "Maggie" Magnuson gained their national recognition as skillful politicians who made enduring contributions at all levels of American government...

..snip..


...SCOOP JACKSON WAS A LEADING CONTENDER TO BECOME JOHN KENNEDY'S RUNNING MATE in 1960. But when Jackson lost to Lyndon Johnson, he accepted the Democratic Party chairmanship, rising in stature as he helped Kennedy to his narrow election victory.
Magnuson also took part, heading the campaign in 13 Western states. Kennedy later repaid him, coming to Seattle for a testimonial dinner honoring Maggie's 25 years in Congress and kicking off his 1962 Senate run. Nearly 3,000 guests heard Kennedy joke, "He sends messages to the rostrum, and when he is asked, 'What is it?' he replies, 'It's nothing important.' And Grand Coulee Dam is built."
Although Maggie was not really responsible for Grand Coulee, he and Scoop could take credit for bringing Washington one out of every six dollars in public-works appropriations, though the state ranked only 23rd in population. Several dams, a Grand Coulee powerhouse as well as numerous highway and irrigation projects were just part of the Magnuson-Jackson pork barrel. Many national programs the senators supported also had strong Washington state benefits -- from an oceanographic bill bringing the UW millions in research money to the law setting a 12-mile limit to protect coastal fisheries.

Friendship with Democratic presidents added to the national stature Magnuson and Jackson earned while in the Senate. A new drydock at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton,left, and a dual-purpose reactor at the Hanford nuclear reservation, right, were two of the defense projects the pair supported to benefit Washington.

But the dynamic duo probably had greatest success during the 1960s in bringing home defense contracts, expanding the area's shipyards and military installations, but most notably the local aircraft industry. Although Jackson always cringed when called "the senator from Boeing," Seattle's premier company benefitted substantially from both Scoop's and Maggie's efforts. In 1965, 80 percent of Boeing's contracts were military.
The Washington delegation's political power was never more in evidence than during the bitter Senate fight over the Supersonic Transport, the SST. Annual attempts to stop government support for SST development -- a huge portion of which went to Boeing -- were turned back by Scoop and Maggie, prompting an opponent, Wisconsin Sen. William Proxmire, to conclude: "There are just two strong, persuasive reasons for the SST" -- Scoop and Maggie.
Yet even their consummate political skills could not save the SST, which was finally grounded in 1971. Scoop and Maggie responded in character, obtaining an extension of unemployment benefits for states such as Washington facing serious economic problems.
The partnership could easily have been fractured by Jackson's campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972 and 1976 and by his hawkish position on Vietnam, which Magnuson clearly opposed. Yet throughout their careers the two senators continued to support each other in promoting state interests.
In a changing world, those efforts often meant protecting the region's environment from the very development the pair had earlier championed. Whether sponsoring legislation for a North Cascades National Park or ensuring that supertankers could not pollute Puget Sound, Scoop and Maggie kept the benefits rolling into Washington..>

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/centennial/september/towers.html

_________

January 8, 2002 in JINSA Events, Meetings and Programs : The Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson Distinguished Service Award

2001 Jackson Award Honors Service Secretaries

http://www.jinsa.org/articles/articles.html/function/view/categoryid/1366/documentid/1376/history/3,2166,1366,1376

On October 25, JINSA hosted more than 600 guests drawn from the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, the diplomatic and defense communities to pay tribute to Navy Secretary Gordon R. England, Air Force Secretary Dr. James G. Roche, and Army Secretary Thomas E. White, as they were each presented with JINSA's Henry M. ÒScoop" Jackson Distinguished Service Award. Presenting the awards was Mr. Rudy De Leon, Senior Vice President of the Boeing Company's Washington, D.C. Operations. Boeing was this year's event Major Corporate Sponsor.



Each year, JINSA honors leaders who, throughout their careers, have honored the tradition of the late Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson. As Secretary White noted, "JINSA was organized in part to perpetuate his legacy and we can feel his spirit here tonight. Senator Jackson inspired American's with his dedication to a strong U.S. defense posture and his abiding interest in helping oppressed peoples." In a letter to this year's recipients, Mrs. Helen Jackson wrote that "It is gratifying to know that as the three of you perform your vital tasks on behalf of our nation at this particularly critical time, you are embodying the ideas of my late husband, a strong national defense and close ties with Israel."...>>

______________

JACKSON BIO - http://www.hmjackson.org/bio.html

[Dover]

7. I'm beginning to wonder if JINSA is the tie that binds the Dems &

Republicans in a mutually assured defense-friendly political platform and agenda. There certainly seems to be plenty of overlap. Or maybe it's Boeing and the defense industries in collaboration with JINSA. I feel like I'm circling something important but can't put my finger on it.

But the links between the Neocons, Scoop Jackson's legacy with defense contractors and JINSA with its protective stance toward Israel make for veeeeeeeery interesting bedfellows to say the least.
Lieberman, Gep and other Dem hawks certainly seem to be cut from this same cloth as well...

Now look at the growth of the U.S. Pentagon and defense industry and where the tax dollars are going. Will Dems and Republicans alike continue to approve defense spending at this rate into the forseeable future, paid for by you and me while the upper crust of society skims the profits and gets tax relief?

[Flying_Pig]

17. Likud=JINSA=AIPAC=PNAC=AEI=Neocons

And, they infect BOTH political parties.

In letting an outside nation, in this case, Israel, control, and/or, direct our foreign policy, anyone who allows this is a traitor, and stands in violation of our Constitution.

How much documentation is needed as to what these people are doing, and the adverse effect it is having on THIS nation, before someone does something about it? Instead, our politicos cower in the face of AIPAC and their media supplicants and allies, fearful of being branded as anti-Semites if they even do something as simple as call for "even-handedness"! I want Israel's hands out of our government right now!!

:grr:
!!!!

[Bandit]

18. So then I guess Nader was correct in saying that there was little

difference between the two political parties. He never said that there was no difference between Gore and Bush* he said there was little difference between the two political parties.

[Flying_Pig]

20. To a degree, yes. But i don't think Nader was even aware of the

depth of the neocon influence on both parties. He was more focued on corporate influence. In both cases, the Republcians are certainly worse, and in my opinion, at least the Dems offer more balance and hope. After the election, it will be time to clean house within our own party, and remove those who suck the corporate and Likud/AIPAC teat.

[DrBB]

9. That's what the NEO in neocon refers to, yes.

William Kristol's another. Someone should compile a list....

on edit: And while I'm thinking of it, Hitchens looks well on his way to being another.

[glitch]

23. that's interesting - when a person who thinks in B/W only - gets

disillusioned, there is really only one place to go - the other extreme.

Here is my personal definition of fascism:
Left - when the state controls the economy
Right - when the economy controls the state
When the same people run the state AND the economy it really doesn't much matter which brand of fascism they offer.
And that's why it's so easy for B/W thinkers to flip-flop. IMO B/W thinkers eventually end up fascists, they have no imagination for anything else.

[PATRICK]

13. the difference in species of trolls

It solidifies a theory of mine that these ideologues, black tower idealists of twisted principles have really little to nothing in common with the old dog poweraholics of the ruling Bush dynasty and the assorted government types who have the real agenda tightly in their grasp. As with the subservient media who sagely give advice and friendly criticism, when push comes to shove none of the ideals of the GOP, the goals of PNAC, the moral righteousness of the Christian Right,etc. etc. are anything but lower caste(though highly privileged)tiers on the great oligarch pyramid. Those that besprinkle the dirty jobs echelons in the government refuse to take any responsibility for their hand in the mess. Typical.

At the top however, the absurd evil continues in that they rely in backward fashion on their various underlings and institutions to do all the delegated work- in their proper fields. No one is really in control of a unified Right theory or practice other than a few principles stupidly follwed to the extremes beyond clinical insanity. Bush unfortunately a malleable delegator, a wannabe ruling class rich elitist devoid of real values, a mental lightweight himself, is a void- while the black tower has its own irrelevant self-assurance unconnected with a cooperative exercise of effective conservatism.

Out of control. No center, no controlling reason, lousy lousy results compared to any regime or type of regime. Embarassing themselves. Exposed to all but their own unjustified self confidence in that the world and the soldier toys they play with are in the wrong hands. Stupdity is not low IQ so much as completely misapplied intelligence coupled with mindless self-assurance. To go from Scoop jackson and the Dems to this is an odyssey to Cocytus(last cold circle of Hell) with no return ticket. Lewis Carroll would not even have to cariacature them at their little tea party.

Only Bushco and the neocons could ruin the world's greatest economy and military. Another four years and it could be permanent or a spiral to drag the rest of humanity down with it. A waste of a promising planet. A complete dehumanization of merely deficient human beings.

All because we permit the worst of us to lead the greatest of nations.

[priller]

16. That's basically what Krugman has been saying

The neocons aren't conservatives, they're revolutionaries. A revolution has taken place and most people don't even realize it. These people aren't there to try and fix govt, they're there to destroy it and replace it with their own fascist pseudo-religious state.

[bobthedrummer]

24. An apt analogy priller-revolutionaries seeking a

"fascist pseudo-religious state".
I concur, they will not succeed but they will be around for a while and we all are going to have to fight them on every front not just here at DU where the American people's vanguard is.

Everyday more people are waking up seeking positive actions to counter them. So am I, IMHO it starts with education about the neo-con traitors which I find here daily and share within my social network.

They hate exposure most of all IMO because people want to know who is responsible for the coup and it's after-effects not just *'s posturing in reponse to the puppetmasters control.

They are very vunerable now IMO.

[truthisfreedom]

3. Vision of the Neocons Stays Fixed on Making Bad Choices

no message other than that...

[Resistance Is Futile]

4. Watch this closely

AEI represents what has become the core of GOP corporate support. These guys are the kingmakers. If Chimpy ceases to be useful to these people he will be pulled from the GOP ticket.

[kskiska]

19. CNN's Bill Schneider

is from the AEI.

[booksenkatz]

5. Hard choices

Choosing between gobs of money and power, or merely settling for shitloads of money and power. Decisions, decisions.

[Flubadubya]

6. Just like a cold-blooded, reptilian neocon...

Quote: "Some are responding by arguing that the terrorist attacks on US troops there may actually be... a good thing."

That's right, so what if it takes more of our soldier's lives to achieve their PNAC objectives. Just the "cost of doing business" I suppose.

Further along in the story is another statement:

"But the neocons see it all in grand-historical terms - if it takes 100,000 soldiers, if it takes a draft, who cares? We gotta do it."

Whatever it takes! :grr: :puke:

[hadrons]

8. ... the neocons stays fixed on making hard choices ... for other people

:puke:

[reprobate]

14. This is why the Bush I administration called these guys the "Crazies

[LeftHander]

22. "intellectual movement known as neoconservatism"

that should read "...intellectual bowel movement...."