Category Archives: Neoconservatism

Diplomacy Or More Devastation?

Foreign Policy, Middle East, Military, Neoconservatism, Russia, UN, WMD

The latest Syria developments, as of Tuesday, September 10, are that “UN Security Council closed-door meeting called by Russia has been canceled, according to the Council’s current president Australia’s Ambassador to the UN, Gary Quinlan.” (Via RT)

And, via Politico:

President Barack Obama said Tuesday he wants Congress to delay its efforts to vote on authorizing the use of force in response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons until the round of diplomatic efforts that began this week has a chance to play out.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Obama to renounce the use of force.

Note that “Obama and Kerry … haven’t been shy about taking credit for the [Russian] proposal [to disarm Syria of chemical weapons], saying on Monday and Tuesday that they discussed the idea last week with their Russian counterparts.” (Politico)

Will the president go back to saving-face mode, or will diplomacy win out?

UPDATE II: His Highness’s Collateral Damage

Barack Obama, Foreign Policy, Iraq, Just War, libertarianism, Middle East, Neoconservatism, Republicans

“… And if you’re so dead-set against the killing of children that you are willing to send us into yet another conflict, will you guarantee that the 1000-pound Tomahawk missiles that you will heap on Syria won’t kill children—or are they simply your collateral damage?”

These powerful words were delivered by Judge Jeanine (written, no doubt, by her show’s writers), five minutes and 28 seconds into her weekly Opening Statement.

Judge Jeanine was speaking about the thing no Republican cared about during Iraq: collateral damage.

Let us hope that this wonderful, country wide awakening is no brief jaunt, but a return to an America-First, do-no-harm foreign policy.

Photos: Nine Years of War in Iraq.

UPDATED I (9/8): And “Will the murders of those children be less significant than those we go to avenge?” I failed to transcribe Jeanine’s last clincher. This is the sort of sharp logic missing from most tele-commentary.

UPDATE II: In reply to the thread on Facebook: Other than as an economist, Thomas Sowell is unpersuasive. No serious libertarian should take him seriously on issues of just war. Sowell was full-throttle for the war against Iraq.

UPDATED: McMussolini Vs. Marshmallow Man (Man Reads McCain His Rights)

John McCain, Middle East, Military, Neoconservatism, War

In this clip, an intelligent, informed, Syrian American hammers “McMussolini,” exposing his ignorance and arrogance. The exchange shows the measure of the man. McCain’s reply to her amounts to platitudes. His message is clear: “It’s my way or the highway.”

Via Economic Policy Journal:

I like “marshmallow” man even better. Here you see him get in McCain’s face 1:58 minutes into the YouTube clip:

UPDATE (9/8): “The simple irony is that the domestic enemy now in this country is the government of the Unites States.”

Man reads McMussolini’s his rights. The sleeping giant has awakened.

Again, to all consistent and principled anti-war warriors, the specter of Americans rising against Uncle Sam’s bloody suzerainty is … wonderful.

An Exchange Neoconservatives Didn’t Want To See

Internet, Iran, Media, Neoconservatism

Neoconservatives can relax. It would appear that America’s notoriously stupid news media reported in haste and before verification that Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s new leader, and a member of his cabinet, were sending out happy Rosh Hashana tweets to Iran’s Jewish community.

“As the sun is about to set here in #Tehran I wish all Jews, especially Iranian Jews, a blessed Rosh Hashanah,” Hassan Rouhani was purported to have tweeted, with the new president’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, following with a succinct “Happy Rosh Hashanah” tweet.

CNN Jessica Yellin erupted almost as she does when Obama looks her way or says her name during a press “briefing.”

International Business Times provided a correction it got from Iran’s official FARS News Agency:

“Mr. Rouhani does not have a tweeter account,” Presidential Advisor Mohammad Reza Sadeq told FNA on Thursday.

The western media claimed late Wednesday that the Iranian president has tweeted a felicitation message to the worldwide Jewish community to congratulate them on the advent of the new Jewish year.

“As the sun is about to set here in Tehran, I wish all Jews, especially Iranian Jews, a blessed Rosh Hashanah,” the western and Israeli media quoted Rouhani as saying in his tweet. The message was posted with a picture of a man in a yarmulke bowing his head in prayer.

In response, Sadeq explained that “proponents and fans of Mr. Rouhani were active in the cyberspace during the recent presidential election in Iran and used many web pages with titles similar or close to Mr. Rouhani (‘s name) to run their activities”.

“Of course, such activities are fully normal during election campaigns, and some of them might continue their operation even after the election,” the advisor continued.

“Yet,” he emphasized, “any official news on him (the president) is released by the presidential office.

Neoconservatives will have to conserve their energies until the next time they will be called upon to deflect any friendly gesture Iranian leaders may attempt.