MetaFilter posts tagged with neocons

War Games

adamvasco — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 13:03:10 -0800

What Mahmoud Ahmadinejad needs to survive politically is possibly a War. However the possibility that plans for military action have been torpedoed have brought 'howls' from the neocons.

The man who knew too much

homunculus — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 15:00:09 -0800

The man who knew too much. "He was the CIA's expert on Pakistan's nuclear secrets, but Rich Barlow was thrown out and disgraced when he blew the whistle on a US cover-up. Now he's to have his day in court."

Considering a war with Iran

homunculus — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:30:56 -0800

"Considering a war with Iran: A discussion paper on WMD in the Middle East" (PDF). A new study by two British scholars claims that the United States has the capacity for and may be prepared to launch a massive assault on Iran. This comes just in time for the post Labor Day product rollout. [Via Informed Comment.]

"An evangelical vision of geopolitical redemption."

homunculus — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 00:26:34 -0800

Iraq: The War of the Imagination. "Anyone seeking to understand what has become the central conundrum of the Iraq war—how it is that so many highly accomplished, experienced, and intelligent officials came together to make such monumental, consequential, and, above all, obvious mistakes, mistakes that much of the government knew very well at the time were mistakes—must see beyond what seems to be a simple rhetoric of self-justification and follow it where it leads: toward the War of Imagination that senior officials decided to fight in the spring and summer of 2002 and to whose image they clung long after reality had taken a sharply separate turn." By Mark Danner. [Via Tomdispatch.]

Lies, and the lying liars...

jpburns — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 05:37:08 -0800

Whether it's mislabeling his affiliation, or starting conspiracy theories, the party of responsible government (and their right-wing media organizations) are doing all they can to downplay the Foley scandal.

Inexorable

homunculus — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:55:07 -0800

The End of The "Summer of Diplomacy": Assessing U.S. Military Options on Iran (PDF). "In a new report for The Century Foundation, Retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner warns that powerful voices in the Bush administration are making the case for air strikes aimed not only at setting back Iran’s nuclear program, but also at toppling the country’s government. He says that these officials are undeterred by the concerns of military leaders about whether such attacks would be effective." [Via The Agonist and FDL.]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...

jpburns — Wed, 24 May 2006 04:01:37 -0800

There's a move afoot to censure Jimmy Carter instead of, say, anyone actually responsible for making the world a more dangerous place. I call "attacking the messenger by proxy," or at least, some serious Rove-ian misdirection.

The long, slow death of public health care...

327.ca — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 12:00:10 -0800

Few things are more sacred to Canadians than the nation's medicare system. After years of health spending cutbacks by conservative politicians, debate rages over whether private providers should now be allowed to compete with the public system. In British Columbia, where the government is shovelling tax dollars into the 2010 Olympics, patients are being left to die in emergency rooms and long-term care facilities due to overcrowding and understaffing. Is it too late to save public health care? Should it be saved?

Even Larry Johnson is afraid of the I.C.O.T.I.G.

ericbop — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 12:27:59 -0800

Earth-friendly evangelicals have been in the news a lot lately. Are they related to the Crunchy Cons (or Green cons?!?)? Maybe they're all just afraid of the wrath of grandma...[first link requires nyt account, or a library card]

The Trouble with Neocons

caddis — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 22:43:23 -0800

A lapsed neocon speaks out: The problem with neoconservatism's agenda lies not in its ends, which are as American as apple pie, but rather in the overmilitarized means by which it has sought to accomplish them.... After the fall of the Soviet Union, various neoconservative authors like Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol and Robert Kagan suggested that the United States would use its margin of power to exert a kind of "benevolent hegemony" over the rest of the world, fixing problems like rogue states with W.M.D., human rights abuses and terrorist threats as they came up. Writing before the Iraq war, Kristol and Kagan considered whether this posture would provoke resistance from the rest of the world, and concluded, "It is precisely because American foreign policy is infused with an unusually high degree of morality that other nations find they have less to fear from its otherwise daunting power." ... We are fighting hot counterinsurgency wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and against the international jihadist movement, wars in which we need to prevail. But "war" is the wrong metaphor for the broader struggle, since wars are fought at full intensity and have clear beginnings and endings. Meeting the jihadist challenge is more of a "long, twilight struggle" whose core is not a military campaign but a political contest for the hearts and minds of ordinary Muslims around the world.

Is the Blair government creating another dodgy dossier?

insomnia_lj — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 18:18:48 -0800

Is the Blair government creating another dodgy dossier? Following Tony Blair's recent outburst accusing the Iranian government of supporting attacks on British troops, a team are being dispatched to Iraq on a hunting expedition, in the hope of proving him right. Meanwhile, a prominent neo-con who served as the Iraq desk officer for the Office of Special Plans is telling the British that only the threat of force will tame Tehran. Sound familiar?!

What Are We Talking About, Anyway?

davy — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 14:04:16 -0800

Debating A Neocon, etc. "Editors’ note: The following exchange is significant for its discussion of how the world order functions today. Particularly interesting is the debate over the significance of neoconservative ideology within the ruling class and whether such a thing as 'Islamic fascism' exists."

We only laugh because we can cry no more

clevershark — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 09:59:10 -0800

Bush nominates Wolfowitz for World Bank post. "Willingness to accept a long-term American occupation force" is now set to become a condition for future bailouts.

The Power of Media?

DrDoberman — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 09:03:23 -0800

The Power of Nightmares sets out to claim that the Islamists and the neocons are, in reality, soul mates. Fact or fiction? Check out this series from the BBC using this handy Bit Torrent!
[Via: PopBitch]

Oh conservatism, thou art sick!

troutfishing — Fri, 22 Oct 2004 15:08:17 -0800

Becoming what you hate : Nathan Sproul, case study in moral relativism on the Religious Right "former head of the Arizona Republican Party and of the Arizona Christian Coalition....Sproul is connected with the Republican National Committee-funded voter registration organization, Voters' Outreach of America Inc." - Sproul's firm is accused of fraud and the destruction of voter registration forms. He also failed to pay his workers and his office rent. Rick Perlstein, in the Village Voice, comments on the Sproul scandal : "Both sides are not equally bad, and any reporters who don't recognize that conservatism's very core has become shot through with a culture of mendacity should turn in their press badge..... It used to be that we could count on the conscience of conservatives to protect our democratic institutions."

PIN HEADS

acrobat — Thu, 21 Oct 2004 07:50:05 -0800

The neo-cons are pushing a law through Congress that would "acknowledge God as the sovereign source of law, liberty [and] government" in the United States. What's more, it would forbid all legal challenges to government officials who use the power of the state to enforce their own view of "God's sovereign authority." Any judge who dared even hear such a challenge could be removed from office. You don't believe it? It's called Constitution Restoration Act of 2004.

Colin Powell described neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as 'fucking crazies'

rough ashlar — Tue, 14 Sep 2004 07:46:39 -0800

Colin Powell in Four-letter Neo-con 'crazies' Row Perhaps Colin should have said they were cheney crazies.

neo-conned

specialk420 — Sun, 29 Aug 2004 21:05:19 -0800

neo-conned
"FBI espionage probe goes beyond Israeli allegations, sources say ... The linkage, if any, between the two leak investigations, remains unclear. But they both center on the office of Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, the Pentagon's No. 3 official."

Juan Cole pulls back the curtains on the neo-cons and Franklin here ... if you have friends or family in the US military is this the guy(s) you want calling the shots??

And Metafilter too! Especially!

troutfishing — Sun, 18 Jan 2004 18:21:30 -0800

When does politics become treason? Lincoln did it...almost. Why shouldn't GW Bush follow suit ? The Neocon Case for Imprisoning and Executing Congressional War Opponents.: ' "Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled or hanged" - that's what President Abraham Lincoln said during the War Between the States. ' Right then. Where's the noose? Step this way, my traitorous friends. I'll flip ya' for first in line.

NeoCons

kablam — Thu, 04 Sep 2003 20:40:59 -0800

Know Your NeoCons. Already the name "NeoCon" is used as an invective from the Left. But who are they? Here are some of their faces, brief biographies, and information about what a NeoCon is, at least as how they define it.

Revisionist Historians at Work

RKB — Sat, 12 Jul 2003 23:01:54 -0800

Pay No Attention tothemenbehindthe Curtain. You maybe read about PNAC here, wherein numerous members of the current administration wrote down their grand plans for an American-led NWO. Pretty heady stuff, with Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz writing to Clinton in 1998 that "the only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction." Umm, that is... move along, citizen. Nothing to see here (thank goodness for Google's cache).

Who are these neo-conservatives? Pat Buchanan tells all

Voyageman — Sun, 30 Mar 2003 12:10:09 -0800

Who are these neo-conservatives? Pat Buchanan tells all.

THE END OF CLASSICAL SOVEREIGNTY?

dash_slot- — Tue, 11 Mar 2003 20:00:27 -0800

Is hypocrisy essential to the New World Order?
Whilst I appreciate the seductive insights and plausible analysis offered by Lee Harris in this lengthy and generally intelligent essay, I worry that the linking of themes in the intellectual form here merely provides, if not more ammo to the hawks in GWB's Cabinet, the justification for his unending 'war on terror'. There's thinly veiled xenophobia, I'm sure; but also some self-limiting principles compatible with a new kind of 'liberal hegemony' - called 'neo-sovereignty', viz., "It (neo-sovereignty) will only be viable if the U.S. scrupulously refuses to intervene in the self-determination of any state except for the purposes of maintaining the double standards in respect of nuclear weapons... At the heart of the dialectically emergent concept of neo-sovereignty is precisely the double standard that Mr. (Richard, the Chief Arms Inspector of the United Nations) Butler denounced - a double standard imposed by the U.S. on the rest of the world, whereby the U.S. can unilaterally decide to act, if need be, to override and even to cancel the existence of any state regime that proposes to develop WMD, especially in those cases where the state regime in question has demonstrated its dangerous lack of a sense of the realistic." [More inside]

Ty Webb — Fri, 21 Dec 2001 11:26:19 -0800

The real hero of "It's A Wonderful Life" as viewed through neo-conservative goggles.

ewagoner — Mon, 08 Oct 2001 11:59:23 -0800

Rush Limbaugh has gone deaf. While he can recognize sound, he cannot understand it, including callers to his radio show. He's working around it now (somehow), but may have to change his format in the near future. Rush's site is being hit hard, but you can find a transcript of his monologue here.