Project For The Rehabilitation Of Neoconservatism
Project For The Rehabilitation Of Neoconservatism
What do you do if your previous organization — and the ideology behind it — has become inextricably bound in the public’s imagination to one of the worst foreign policy blunders in American history? Obviously, shut it down, and start a new organization with a new name.
The Foreign Policy Initiative lists Robert Kagan, Bill Kristol, and Dan Senor on its board of directors, so no prizes for guessing what they’re about (more power, less appeasement, stronger wills.) Kagan and Kristol need no introduction, they’re the Tick and Arthur of disastrously counterproductive military adventurism. Given the staggering costs in American blood, treasure, security, and reputation incurred by their boundless enthusiasm for blowing stuff up, you might think they’d have had the decency to retreat to a Tibetan monastery by now, but sadly no. The way it works in Washington is, if you’re willing to argue for more defense spending, you’ll always find someone willing to fund your think tank.
Dan Senor is less known to the general public, but familiar to those who’ve followed the Iraq debacle closely. From 2003 to 2004, Senor served as a Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman under Paul Bremer. After that smashing success, Senor returned to Washington, where, among other things, in September 2004 he helped write speeches for Iraqi interim prime minister Ayad Allawi’s U.S. visit, and then apparently went on television to praise those speeches as evidence of Bush’s accomplishments in Iraq.
On March 31, FPI holds its first public event, Afghanistan: Planning For Success, though, given the heavy representation of Iraq war advocates, I think a far better title would be Afghanistan: Dealing With The Huge Problems Created By Many Of The People On This Very Stage. The broad consensus among national security analysts and aid officials is that the diversion of troops and resources toward Iraq beginning in 2002 was one of the main reasons the Taliban and Al Qaeda were able to to re-establish themselves in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas, facilitating the collapse of the country back into insurgent warfare. Having failed to complete the mission in Afghanistan, Bush and the Iraq hawks handed the Obama administration a war that promises to be as difficult and costly as Iraq has been -– if not more. It’s deeply absurd that some of the people most responsible for the crisis in Afghanistan would now presume to tell us how to deal with it.
10 Responses to “Project For The Rehabilitation Of Neoconservatism”
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Do they also hang wallpaper?
March 26th, 2009 at 6:51 pmOff topic a bit but the “blood and treasure” metaphor has gotten to be like a line from Pirates of the Caribbean. Like “grog” and booty”. How about “tens of thousands of maimed and dead americans and a trillion dollar loan from the Chinese Communists”. Longer but has more of a heft and and ring of truthfulness. Or “Thousands of dead american youth and maxed out credit lines with the Communist Regime in China”. Or “5 thousand body bags and a massive Federal Deficit”.
March 26th, 2009 at 7:20 pmThat’s a fair criticism, though in my defense I only occasionally make use of the “blood and treasure” cliche.
March 26th, 2009 at 7:28 pmNeocons: Bound (deservedly) for the Ash Heap of History. Only a damned fool would take these discredited clowns seriously. Honestly, have these specious individuals no shame at all?
March 26th, 2009 at 7:54 pmm. ward what is a neocon?
March 27th, 2009 at 3:35 pmI’m surprised you didn’t point out that Dan Senor is married to CNN’s Campbell Brown.
March 28th, 2009 at 9:47 pmConsidering they still have the ability to form policy debates , the neocons are far from being marginalized. After all, they have the highest rated cable news network as microphone. Rachel does a great job by calling them out! People need to focus more on this very powerful cabal.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:04 pmThis unrepentant realization that America ain’t what’s wrong with the world, that with allies, friends or all by her lonesome Great Satan is the indespensible (and She’s dangerous!!) nation remains vital meds for America fans.
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:22 amCNN’s Campbell Brown converted to Judaism for Dan Senor (who is a Jew). Kagan and Kristol are also Jews. In other words, neoconservatism is a Jewish movement and Jews are responsible for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all the problems which they have caused for all countries involved. Except for Israel. The war on Iraq has been terrific for Israel as it eliminated one of the strongest and most prosperous Arab states, Iraq.
April 8th, 2009 at 7:21 amoh boy, I can wait to see what these war mongering, fear mongering, maniacal, rascally republicans have in store now. The were responsible for the death and maiming of thousands of Americans, for deregulating the crooks on wall street, for following the Idiot in Chief for 8 years and for dumping American in the toilet. Makes me sick just hearing their names. They should all be brought up on war crimes and sent to prison for a long long time. And guess what, I was a republican for year, but no more, they are freaking crazy.
April 8th, 2009 at 8:45 pm