Many
people in the WritersViews.com members'
area chat rooms and lounge rooms have asked
me about the definition of NeoCons (or Neo
Conservatives) and wanted to know what exactly
they stand for. Here, I have provided some
descriptions from various sources (LA Times,
Christian Monitor, New York Times, as well
as others).
"Neo
Conservatives" today are somewhat different
than what they were originally and in their
current manifestation, they are "Spread
Freedom Republicans" with the
majority of their efforts and energy focused
on foreign policy.
They
strongly favor the U.S. government being
involved in the internal affairs of every
country in the world and they believe as
a superpower we should act as the world's
policeman (mainly to protect Israel, since
most of these NeoCons are from jewish backgrounds).
They
strongly favor military interventionist
policies and vehemently promoted the first
Persian Gulf War (attacking Iraq to free
Kuwait although many argue their real intention
was to get rid of Saddam on behalf of Israel)
and are constantly the promoters and instigators
for more confrontation with Iran, Sudan,
and other Moslem states. However, they don't
promote war with North Korea as much nor
with Saudi Arabia which is the country that
supported and funded the terrorists that
attacked U.S. on 9/11. And without any exception,
they are all members of AIPAC (American
Israeli Public Affairs Committee), the powerful
Jewish lobby that many congress representatives
fear.
The difference between normal
Conservatives and NeoConservatives is that
the NeoCons are even more conservative and
unashamedly push for direct confrontation
as the best means to achieve their goals
- more like a bull in a china shop. While,
both conservatives and NeoCons favor a robust
US military, the later displays no reservations
about military intervention and no reluctance
to use torture or any means possible, no
matter how aggressive their methods, in
order to archive its objectives which (as
Iraq War has demonstrated), results in an
overzealous dream with nightmarish consequences.
According to an article
by Michael Lind in the New Statesman, the
Neo Conservatives are:-
"products of the largely Jewish-American
Trotskyist movement of the 1930s and 1940s,
which morphed into anti-communist liberalism
between the 1950s and 1970s and finally
into a militaristic and imperial right."
In general, I think most
would agree that below is a universal list
of their beliefs (even themselves would
agree with this list which is partly compiled
from their own publications):
Unashamed to use American unrivaled power
forcefully to promote NeoCon policies
Want U.S. government to spend more money
on defense (more than the current $700B/year)
Strongly against a 'Social
Welfare System', which they believe
promotes lazy people
Strong advocates of overthrowing
governments in Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan,
and Iran
Pundits of
Jewish decent that try to influence American
foreign policy
Political
movement founded
on a hawkish foreign policy
Political
group that supported a militant anti-communism
agenda
Minimal
social welfare with sometimes extreme free-market
trade ideas with no regulations
Pro-Corporation government
policies
Vigorous
in support of traditionalist agenda and
traditional morality, often dogmatic and
fanatical
Domestic policy does not
define Neo Conservatism and it is not a
major priority for them
Opposition
to communism during the Cold War, and the
communist treatment of Jewish citizens
Opposition
to
Middle Eastern states that pursue policies
that are anti-Israeli interests
Opposition
to Richard Nixon's peace through negotiations,
diplomacy, and arms control
Opposition
to "détente
and containment" policy and regard
this as a weakness and ineffective
Opposition
to bilateral ties between the People's Republic
of China and Soviet Union
Opposition
to established foreign policy conventions
Opposition
to relevancy and effectiveness of UN and
the desire of its abolition
The
main leaders of Neo Conservatism include:
Usually referred
to as the "Godfather" of Neo Conservatism,
Irving Kristol is a fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute and he is the father
of Weekly Standard editor William (or Bill)
Kristol. Irving was born into an orthodox
Jewish family in New York. His most famous
quote is: "There are different kinds
of truths for different kinds of people. There
are truths appropriate for children; truths
that are appropriate for students; truths
that are appropriate for educated adults;
and truths that are appropriate for highly
educated adults, and the notion that there
should be one set of truths available to everyone
is a modern democratic fallacy. It doesn't
work."
Norman Podhoretz
is considered one of Neo Conservatism's founding
fathers and has worked as editor-in-chief
of Commentary magazine, a Neo Conservative
journal published by the American Jewish Committee.The
son of Julius and Helen (Woliner) Podhoretz,
Jewish immigrants from the Central European
region of Galicia. In the leadup to the 2003
U.S. invasion of Iraq, Podhoretz argued strongly
for military intervention, claiming that Saddam
Hussein posed a direct threat to the United
States. After the 9/11 attack and more than
a year before the start of the War in Iraq,
Podhoretz wrote in February 2002 that "There
is no doubt that Saddam already possesses
large stores of chemical and biological weapons
and intends to give this to Al Qaeda".
Mr. Paul Wolfowitz
served as deputy secretary of defense for
three years, was a key architect of the Iraq
war, and now president of the World Bank since
2005. In early 1990's, Wolfowitz served as
under secretary of defense and co-authored
with Lewis "Scooter" Libby (who
was prosecuted for lying) the 1992 draft Defense
Planning Guidance, which called for US military
dominance over Eurasia and preemptive strikes.
After being leaked to the media, the draft
proved so shocking that it had to be substantially
rewritten. After 9/11, many of the principles
in that draft became key points in the 2002
National Security Strategy of the United States.
During the 1991 Gulf War, Wolfowitz advocated
extending the war's aim to include toppling
Saddam Hussein's regime.
Nicknamed the
"Prince of Darkness",
Richard Perle is one of the most high-profile
NeoConservatives. He resigned in March 2003
as chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy
Board for conflicts of interest. Perle is
the chief architect of the "creative
destruction" agenda to reshape the
Middle East, starting with the invasion of
Iraq. He outlined parts of this agenda in
a key 1996 report for Israel's right-wing
Likud Party called "A Clean Break:
A New Strategy for Securing the Realm."
He also established: The Jewish Institute
for National Security. He is also a fellow
at the American Enterprise Institute, and
a director of the Jerusalem Post.
John Bolton
has held a variety of positions in both
the George H. and W. Bush and Ronald Reagan
administrations, but prior to his government
positions, he was senior vice president
of the NeoConservative think tank American
Enterprise Institute. In a controversial
May 2002 speech entitled, "Beyond the
Axis of Evil," Bolton fingered Libya,
Syria, and Cuba as "other rogue states
intent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction."
In July 2003, the CIA and other agencies
reportedly disagreed strongly and claimed
that Bolton has made misleading comments.
Douglas Feith
was undersecretary of
defense policy which he held for 4 years from
2001-2005 under Bush administration. He had
also served in the Reagan administration as
deputy assistant secretary of defense and
prior to that, he served as special counsel
to Richard Perle. Before his service at the
Pentagon, Feith worked as a Middle East specialist
for the National Security Council in 1981-82.
Feith is well-known for his support of Israel's
right-wing Likud Party. In 1997, Feith was
honored along with his father Dalck Feith,
who was active in a Zionist youth movement
in his native Poland, for their "service
to Israel and the Jewish people" by pro-Likud
Zionist Organization of America at its 100th
anniversary banquet. In 1992, he was vice
president of the advisory board of the Jewish
Institute for National Security Affairs. Mr.
Feith is a former chairman of the Center for
Security Policy.
Lewis "Scooter"
Libby was chief of staff and
national security advisor for Vice President
Dick Cheney before he was tried and convicted
of lying to Congressional committees but did
not serve his 2 year prison sentence because
he was pardoned by George Bush. During the
first Bush administration, Mr. Libby served
in the Department of Principal Deputy Under
Secretary), and later, as Deputy Under Secretary
of Defense for Policy. Libby was a founding
member of the Project for the New American
Century. He joined Paul Wolfowitz, William
Kristol, Robert Kagan, and others in writing
its 2000 report entitled, "Rebuilding
America's Defenses - Strategy, Forces, and
Resources for a New Century." Currently
he serves on the advisory board of the RAND
Corporation.
In 1991, Elliotte
Abrams pleaded guilty to withholding information
from Congress about the Iran-Contra affair.
President George H. W. Bush pardoned him in
1992. He was a senior fellow at the Hudson
Institute from 1990 to the 1996 before becoming
president of the Ethics and Public Policy
Center, which "affirms the political
relevance of the great Western ethical imperatives."
Abrams also served as chairman of the US Commission
on International Religious Freedom. In February
of 2005 Elliott Abrams was appointed deputy
assistant to the president and deputy national
security adviser for global democracy strategy.
From December 2002 to February 2005, Mr. Abrams
served as special assistant to the president
and senior director for Near East and North
African affairs. He is married to Rachel Decter,
daughter of NeoCon veterans Norman Podhoretz
and Midge Decter.
Mr. Robert Kagan
writes extensively on US strategy and diplomacy
and along with fellow NeoConservative William
Kristol co-founded the Project for a New American
Century (PNAC) in 1997. After working as principal
speech writer to Secretary of State George
P. Schultz from 1984-1985, he was hired by
Elliott Abrams to work as deputy for policy
in the State Department's Bureau of Inter-American
Affairs. He is a contributing editor at The
New Republic and The Weekly Standard. He wrote
the bestseller "Of Paradise and Power:
America and Europe in the New World Order."
Kagan's wife, Victoria Nuland, was chosen
by Vice President Dick Cheney as his deputy
national security adviser.
Known for his
strong anti-Iran thundering speeches and angry
hateful comments towards muslims in general,
Mr. Michael Ladeen is seen by many as one
of the most radical NeoConservatives. He has
frequently advised George W. Bush's top adviser
Karl Rove on foreign policy matters. In 2001,
Ledeen co-founded the Coalition for Democracy
in Iran, a front organization to overthrow
the Iranian government as a repeat
of the 1953 CIA coup against the democratically
elected Dr. Mossadegh. He served as Secretary
of State Alexander Haig's adviser during the
Reagan administration. Ledeen is fellow at
the American Enterprise Institute, where he
works closely with Richard Perle. he is also
a member of the Jewish Institute of National
Security Affairs' advisory board and one of
its founding organizers. Mr. Ladeen also advocates
regime change in Syria, and Saudi Arabia,
and previously in Iraq (before the U.S. invasion
of that country in 2003).
Son of "Godfather"
of NeoConservatism Irving Kristol, William
(Bill) Kristol is chairman of the Project
for a New American Century, which he co-founded
with Robert Kagan. He is also editor of the
Weekly Standard. Like Frank Gaffney Jr. and
Elliott Abrams, Kristol worked for hawkish
Democratic Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson
but by 1976, he became a Republican and later
served as chief of staff to Education Secretary
William Bennett during the Reagan administration
and chief of staff to former Vice President
Dan Quayle during the George H. W. Bush presidency.
Kristol continuously called for Saddam Hussein's
ouster since the 1991 Gulf War.
Mr. Frank Gaffney,
Jr. is the founder, president, and CEO of
the influential Washington think tank Center
for Security Policy. In 1987, President Reagan
nominated Gaffney to be assistant secretary
of defense for international security policy
and was involved in Iran-Contra Affairs. He
earlier served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary
of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control
Policy under then-Assistant Secretary Richard
Perle. In the late 1970s, Gaffney served as
a defense and foreign policy adviser to Sen.
Henry "Scoop" Jackson. He has been
columnist and/or contributing editor for:
Washington Times, Defense News, Investor's
Business Daily, National Review Online, WolrdNetDaily.com
and JewishWorldReview.com.
George Shultz
was the first who suggested to the GOP leadership
in 1998 that George W. Bush should run for
the office of Presidency and brought a team
of advisors and supporters to aid G.W. Bush
for his campaign. Shultz was later the main
advisor for George W. Bush's presidential
campaign during the 2000 election and a
senior member of the so-called "Vulcans",
a group of policy mentors for Bush which
also included among its members Dick Cheney,
Paul Wolfowitz and Condoleezza Rice. Shultz
has been called the father of the "Bush
Doctrine", because of his advocacy
of preemptive war. Shultz also served as
United States Secretary of Labor from 1969
to 1970, as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
from 1972 to 1974, and as the U.S. Secretary
of State from 1982 to 1989 to Ronald Reagan.
James Woosley
has been known primarily as a NeoConservative
hawkish on foreign policy issues. He is
former Director of Central Intelligence
and head of the Central Intelligence Agency
(1993-1995). He is a member of the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) Board
of Advisors and a member of the Project
for the New American Century (PNAC). Steven
Clemons, a senior fellow at the New America
Foundation think tank, has accused Woolsey
of both profiting from and promoting the
Iraq War. He has been a huge campaigner
for attacking Iran and overthrowing its
government and once that is complete, to
target Syria next.
The NeoCon Cabal in the
Bush administration was first discovered
by by former Secretary of State Colin Powell's
chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson in 2001,
who claimed that the Bush administration's
foreign policy is run by a "Cheney-Rumsfeld-NeoCon
cabal" who disregard other institutions
in United States and have displayed utter
contempt for the American Constitution.
In 2003 the U.S. mainstream
media divulged the existence of the Cabal
when the George W. Bush administration failed
to enter into negotiations with Iran on
its nuclear program in May 2003 because
Cabal zealots who advocated destabilization
and regime change were able to block any
serious diplomatic engagement with Tehran,
according to former administration officials.
The same Cabal veto power also prevented
the administration from adopting any official
policy statement on Iran, those same officials
say.
Lawrence Wilkerson, then
chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin
Powell, says the failure to adopt a formal
Iran policy in 2002-2003 was the result
of obstruction by this "secret cabal"
of neoconservatives in the administration,
led by Vice President Dick Cheney. Accusing
Iran of a covert plan to pursue nuclear
weapons, without any evidence whatsoever,
under the guise of peaceful ambitions, most
of the NeoCons advocate a policy of preventing
the Islamic Republic from getting the bomb
although no proof has ever been found that
Iran is developing a nuclear bomb.
The Iranians offered a negotiating
proposal, transmitted to the State Department
in early May 2003 by the Swiss ambassador
in Tehran. This proposal acknowledged that
Iran would address all U.S. concerns about
its nuclear program and provide undisputed
evidence regarding its desire to only develop
nuclear energy, according to Flynt Leverett,
then the National Security Council's senior
director for Middle East Affairs. In return,
Leverett recalls, the Iranians wanted the
United States to address security questions,
the lifting of economic sanctions and normalization
of relations and he particularly noted that
the Iranian proposal was drafted with the
blessing of all the major political players
in the Iranian regime, including the "Supreme
Leader", Ayatollah Ali Khomeini.
Secretary of State Powell
and his Deputy Richard Armitage intended
to respond positively to the Iranian offer
and at the least explore the opportunities
and build a forum for further discussions.
Armitage later claimed that the Cabal was
angrily sabotaging this new opportunity
and Cheney's office and in Undersecretary
of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith's Office
of Special Plans wanted a policy of regime
change and were absolutely against any discussions
with Iranian leaders.
The U.S.
Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad
was authorized to hold preliminary secret
discussions in Geneva with Iranian official
Javad Zarif to discuss Iraq and explore
the Iranian proposal. The NeoCons and Cabal
then tried to sandbag the talks by introducing
a demand for full information on any high-ranking
Al Qaeda cadres who might be detained by
the Iranians.
Iran agreed to provide this information
if the United States gave Iran the names
of the cadres of the Mujahideen
e Kalq (MEK) who were being held by
U.S. forces in Iraq. Javad Zarif, offered
a compromise on the issue, according to
Leverett, Iran would give the United States
the names of the Al Qaeda operatives they
had detained.
The MEK had carried out
armed attacks against Iran from Iraqi territory
during the Saddam regime and had been named
a terrorist organization by the United States,
killing American citizens and military personnel
in Iran before the Islamic Revolution. However,
the compromise was declined by the Bush
administration because Cabal and the NeoCons
insisted that the MEK is a potential asset
in an effort to destabilize the Iranian
regime.
The MEK had already become
a key element in the alternative plan by
Cabal which was shelved when Larry Franklin
was indicted after this Iran analyst on
Feith's staff revealed that he had sent
information secret U.S. information to the
Israeli Embassy. Franklin pled guilty to
passing classified information to Israel
and was sentenced to 12 and a half years
in prison.
But by this time the damage
had been done and without direct diplomatic
contact between Iran and the United States,
the Cabal and their NeoCon surrogates had
a clear path to raising tensions and building
political support for regarding Iran as
the primary enemy of the United States,
and threat to U.S. global domination and
control of the Middle East energy corridor.
Now anticipating President
Barack Obama's desire for carrot and stick
policies in the new administration, the
NeoCons are advocating skeptical of diplomatic
efforts and rendering them ineffective and
instead advocate tough sanctions and military
strikes to dissuade Iran's leaders from
their ambitions.
Bolton in particular is
a strong advocate of military action against
Iran, as he was against Iraq. "The
only thing that stands between Iran and
nuclear weapon is the potential use of military
force," said John Bolton, an American
Enterprise Institute's senior fellow and
George W. Bush's former U.N. ambassador.
He is also the same man who had once said,
"Boys go to Iraq, Men go to Iran".
The NeoCons, despite
their disadvantage in numbers, exercises
an immense influence on both conservative
and, to an extent, liberal governments through
a combination of business and military alliances
and public exposure via their enormous media
presence.
Even when out of government,
as in the 1990s, NeoConservatives have pushed
their agenda publicly by forming organizations
such as the Project for a New American Century
(PNAC) which was instrumental to the Iraq
War push in the late 1990s.
Their campaigns, such as
the build-up to the Iraq invasion and the
push against negotiations with Iran, are
highly coordinated efforts where numerous
players. For instance, during a recent anti-engagement
campaign the talking points were getting
communication material from Israel and within
hours putting out the argument and futility
of talks with Iran.
Bolton held a press conference
at American Enterprise Institute and said
that the debate about negotiations was over
because they were a failure. Immediately,
Philips from the Heritage foundation, said
that the diplomatic track was not encouraging
because Iran has a revolutionary Islamic
government that is concerned with ideology
rather than the Iranian peoples' national
interest. Michael Rubin, who recently authored
a hawkish report on the U.S.'s upcoming
Iran policy wrote an article for the website
of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a congressionally-funded
international news outlet suggesting that
diplomacy is a sign of U.S. weakness. and
"if all diplomacy required were Washington's
good intentions, the world would be a magical
place," Rubin wrote. "It is ironic
that some U.S. diplomats trust the Islamic
republic more than many Iranians themselves
do."
The next day he wrote, "Obama
will learn quickly that the impediment to
engagement lies not in Washington but in
Tehran, since, Iranian officials often approach
diplomacy insincerely." Two days later,
Phillips, said Iranian diplomacy is characterized
by "religiously sanctioned ... dissimulation
or duplicity."
But Hillary Mann Leverett
( Foreign Service Officer with National
Security Council), who has been physically
at the table with the Iranians representing
the U.S. over the past decade and is a strong
proponent of a "grand bargain deal"
and comprehensive rapprochement strategy
for Iran, says that such characterizations
are "not based on anything real."
"To me that's just
racist. There's nothing in the historical
record to support that," Leverett said.
"The lie that they're hagglers in the
bazaar and can't be trusted is the same
sort of anti-Semitic stuff you hear about
Jewish people. Iran helped us (which nobody
disputes, even the NeoCons) with Afghanistan
after 9/11 and both France and Britain admitted
in 2002 that without Iran bringing all parties
in the Afghan power centers to the table
and forcing a negotiation, we never would
have had an Afghanistan coalition government
under Karzai."
"With all of our discussion
on U.S.-Iran relations, Iranians brought
people to the table who were authoritative,"
she said of the four major rounds of talks
with Iran since the Islamic Revolution in
1979, including those she was party to.
"What was asked of the Iranians was,
for the most part, delivered."
Neocons envision a world
in which the United States is the unchallenged
superpower, immune to threats. In this capacity,
the U.S. would act as an empire by helping
to create economically liberal governments
in place of nationalist independent regimes
that they regard as threatening to the U.S.
interests. This approach, they claim, is
not only best for the US but it is best
for the world. In their view, the world
can only achieve peace through strong US
leadership backed with credible force, not
weak treaties to be disrespected by non-compliant
leaders. Any regime that is outwardly hostile
to the U.S. policies (including Europeans
disagreeing with American hegemony) pose
a threat and should be confronted aggressively,
not "appeased" or merely contained.
The US military would be reconfigured around
the world to allow for greater flexibility
and quicker deployment to hot spots. The
US would spend more on defense, particularly
for high-tech, precision weaponry that could
be used in preemptive strikes. It would
work through multilateral institutions such
as the United Nations when possible, but
must never be constrained from acting in
its best interests whenever necessary.
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Fantastic post. John, this
is the most thorough post on this subject
I have ever seen online. Shame the mainstream
media does not talk about these things,
... More
>>
They are dictatorial pri@ks,
aren't they. How can these people have so
much power over our country. Even if I agree
with some of their ideas, I can't avoid
thinking horrible, ... More
>>
posted
by:Pete
Black -
22nd, June 2009 at 10:07 pm
Apparently Bush initially
agreed with trading information on MEK,
Leverett had said. Bush also didn't think
that there was such a thing as a good terrorist'."
Rejection came from, ...
More >>
Cheney persuaded him to
not agree with exchanging information on
"real terrorists" who attacked/killed
Americans. All about protecting Israeli
interests not American lives, ... , More
>>
posted
by:Genie
Henson -
22nd, June 2009 at 11:31 pm
Even after getting us into
a war with Iraq quagmire, the same NeoCons
including William Kristol, Richard Perle and
Charles Krauthhammer are pushing for U.S.
go to war with Syria and Iran on behalf of
Israel. And FOX news happily pushes their
agenda, gives them talking soap boxes, and
legitimizes these warmongers and their fascist
agendas. I recently read that most of the
founders of the fascism doctrine were Jewish
and now most of these necons are also the
same Jewish warmongering hateful people that
are obsessed with power, ... More
>>
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Unashamed to use American unrivaled power
forcefully to promote NeoCon policies
(last 30 days)
