MESSAGE
| DATE | 2010-01-23 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Neocons RETURN
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Gee - I've been right here all along..
http://www.newsweek.com/id/232053
The Return of the Neocons
Neoconservatism was once deemed dead—'Buried in the sands of Iraq.'
But it persists, not just as the de facto foreign-policy plank of the
Republican Party but, its proponents assert, in Obama's unapologetic
embrace of American military might.
By David Margolick | NEWSWEEK
Published Jan 22, 2010
From the magazine issue dated Feb 1, 2010
For all his eminence—or maybe because of it—the funeral for
Irving Kristol this past September was an understated affair. Some
thought Dick Cheney might show up, but neither he nor any other
Republican leader did; it seemed almost ungrateful, given Kristol's
extraordinary contribution to the GOP—how he'd brought intellectual
legitimacy and heft to what he himself had once called "the stupid
party." None of the Republican congressional leadership was there, nor
any of the would-be candidates for 2012—not even Sarah Palin, whom
Kristol's ubiquitous son, Bill, had helped turn into a political
phenomenon.
The assemblage of about 200 people wasn't exactly small, but in the
gargantuan sanctuary of Adas Israel Congregation, built at a
time—1951—when American Jews of Irving Kristol's generation
wanted to proclaim they'd finally arrived and planned to stick around
awhile, it was dwarfed by its surroundings; the burgundy back benches
were empty. Adas Israel is Washington's most powerful Conservative
congregation, the one to which every Israeli ambassador to the United
States in history has belonged. Instead of the usual parade of celebrity
eulogists, though, only two people—the rabbi and Bill
Kristol—spoke, and briefly at that. In 40 minutes or so it was over.
But the strength of neoconservatism, the intellectual and political
"persuasion" (as he once called it) that Irving Kristol launched and
led, has never been in its numbers but in its firepower and ferocity.
And had the elder Kristol—whose shrouded coffin sat inconspicuously
below the stage, nestled between the American and Israeli flags—been
able to survey the crowd, he'd have been pleased. For filling the pews
were his progeny, not just biological but intellectual, and they were an
impressive lot.
They came from the publications that neoconservatives either run, like
Bill Kristol's Weekly Standard, or work for, like The Washington Post
and The Wall Street Journal. Others came from the think tanks where
neocons congregate, particularly the American Enterprise Institute
(AEI). There were faces from the Iraq War, with which the neocons are
inextricably linked, like former deputy secretary of defense Paul
Wolfowitz (making a rare public appearance) and the former civilian
administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer. Charles Krauthammer, the impassioned
and highly influential neoconservative columnist at The Washington Post,
and the political scientist Francis Fukuyama (a rare lapsed and
repentant neocon) hadn't spoken to each other for several years—ever
since Fukuyama had taken exception to the roseate view of the Iraq War
Krauthammer had offered in the American Enterprise Institute's 2004
Irving Kristol Lecture—but Kristol's death had briefly brought them
back together, albeit in different parts of the synagogue. The more
traditional wing of the Republican Party, the one the neocons had
arguably routed, also paid homage: George Will, who'd come to view the
Iraq War as an enormous mistake, took his seat respectfully. In his
uncharacteristically apolitical, even gentle, eulogy, Bill Kristol
couldn't help but gloat over the proliferation of neocons: "scores,
legions—hordes they must seem to those who disapprove of them," he
said.
Like Bill Kristol, some of those on hand had inherited their right-wing
beliefs rather than adopted them (as Irving Kristol, a longtime
Democrat, once had). Technically, there is nothing "neo" about
conservatives like Robert Kagan, the historian and another Washington
Post columnist, or John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary; each is a
son of one of neoconservatism's founding fathers. Indeed, no strain in
American politics is so dynastic. It is akin to the right-wing Likud
Party in Israel, whose religion and politics, world view, and succession
rituals the neocons often share. The definitions, and analogy, are
inexact, but both groups have recent ties to Europe and are haunted by
the Holocaust, which has left them feeling wounded, suspicious, and
sometimes bellicose, determined never again to be naive or to trust the
world's good intentions. Both spent decades in the po-litical wilderness
before miraculously acquiring power; both begat "princes" who defied the
normal generational tensions and allied themselves with their kingly
fathers. When Bill Kristol rose to praise Irving that morning, he was
really picking up his scepter.
Had you Googled "neoconservative" and "death" that day, four days after
the 89-year-old Kristol expired, you'd have found lots on their
long-rumored—and for some, much-anticipated and -savored—demise.
On both the left and right, neoconservatism was deemed a spent force.
Its ideas, Foreign Policy magazine had pronounced, "lie buried in the
sands of Iraq."
But obituaries can be premature. At the moment, in fact, the neocons
seem resurrected. One of their own, Frederick Kagan of AEI (Robert's
younger brother), helped turn around the war in Iraq by devising and
pushing for the surge there. More recent-ly, President Obama—whose
foreign--policy pronouncements (nuanced, multi-lateral, interdependent)
and style (low-key, self-critical, conciliatory, collegial) were a
repudiation of neoconservative assertiveness—has swung their way, or
so they believe. First, he's sending an additional 30,000 troops to
Afghanistan, nearly as many as leading neocons had sought. Then came his
Nobel Prize acceptance speech, which, with its acknowledgment of the
need for force, its nod to dissidents in Iran and elsewhere, and its
talk about good and evil, was surprisingly congenial.
You can read the rest of it on line
Ruben
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