Regime change happens all the time without our direct military involvement. I agree, most of what they say is utter bullshit, but take a look at the history of the CIA if you need examples of this.
The history of the CIA? Oh, you mean like their support of Pichochet’s military junta during and after the overthrow of Salvador Allende? I get what you’re saying, but the CIA as an alternative to military intervention is like suggesting you stab somebody in the back instead of shooting him in the face: a lot of people find the alternative equally objectionable.
The Project for the New American Century still exists. It’s where neocons are bred. I suppose that a couple of years from now, when time has pulled a shroud over their last stunt, they’ll regroup there for their next boneheaded scheme.
In the meantime, most of them are receiving welfare in the form of an American Enterprise Institute fellowship. Apparently, even the AEI thinks Feith is too dumb.
Meanwhile, Elliot Abrams (whose criminal involvement in Iran-Contra wasn’t enough to keep him from being accepted as a fellow in the Council on Foreign Relations) is touring Israel (or maybe just visiting his sister-in-law), trying to undercut Israeli confidence in the current U.S. government and instill fear in the hearts of his audience.
Actually, I was refreshing my memory about Leo Stauss as “the noble lie” came up as an issue in another discussion I was having. As I scanned wikipedia’s entry I stumbled across this:
Nicholas Xenos similarly argues that Strauss was “an anti-democrat in a fundamental sense, a true reactionary. Strauss was somebody who wanted to go back to a previous, pre-liberal, pre-bourgeois era of blood and guts, of imperial domination, of authoritarian rule, of pure fascism.”[21] As evidence, Xenos cites Strauss’ attempt in 1933 to gain favor with Charles Maurras, the leader of the right-wing Action Française, as well as a letter Strauss wrote to his friend Karl Löwith in 1933 in which he defended the politics of the political right against the Nazis. Strauss wrote that “just because Germany has turned to the right and has expelled us (Jews), it simply does not follow that the principles of the right are therefore to be rejected. To the contrary, only on the basis of principles of the right – fascist, authoritarian, imperial – is it possible in a dignified manner, without the ridiculous and pitiful appeal to ‘the inalienable rights of man’ to protest against the mean nonentity (Nazism).”[21] [Emphasis in original, parentheticals added for context and meaning]
So, Flowers, I think you could be on to something.
We’re talking about Neocons here.
If there’s one thing I am good at, it is knowing the evil in men’s hearts.
Jesus, I JUST finished watching that ep about 10 minutes ago. Eerie.
When John C. Yoo, a former Justice Department lawyer, was selected by President George W. Bush in May 2004 to join a government board charged with releasing historical Nazi and Japanese war crimes records, trouble quickly followed.
The Abu Ghraib torture scandal was exploding, and fellow panelists learned that Mr. Yoo had written secret legal opinions saying presidents have sweeping wartime power to circumvent the Geneva Conventions. They protested that it was absurd to name Mr. Yoo, who they believed might have sanctioned war crimes, to a war crimes commission.
White House officials canceled the appointment, though it had already been announced in a news release, and kept the episode quiet. “We saved them from incredible embarrassment,” said Thomas H. Baer, one of the dissenting panelists.
Interesting point, but -1 points for poor linkage You gave a link to a blog post, which contained a link back to the story that you probably should have directly linked to.
Sure I see clear reasons why people would consider them more or less equal morally. Still don’t you think we would have been better off had we had the CIA do the job this time instead of sending the army in.
We still would have had people pissed off at us – although I would guess less than we have now. But if nothing else it would have cost us a lot less in at least American lives (and quite possibly Iraqi lives) and money. It also would have let us keep our eye and our resources in Afghanistan where they should have stayed.
I wouldn’t have been thrilled with a CIA-backed operation for Regime Change in Iraq, but it certinaly would have been better than the current clusterfuck.
Where are they now? Who gives a shit as long as they stay there!
Quick, behind you!
They got jobs at the Washington Post?