There is a lot of anger about the postwar descent into chaos, but much of that anger in Iraq is being directed towards the corrupt Iraqi political class who killed our dreams and aspirations, not the clueless, sometimes well-intentioned, foreign…
Neo-Imperialism
Noah Rothman: Trump, Saddam, and Dovish Logic – Commentary
Prior to his ouster, the United States was compelled to engage in military action against Hussein as a result of his provocations in 1991, 1993, 1996, and 1998. Those military actions were precipitated by little things like the invasion and annexation…
Nicholas M Gallagher: Andrew Jackson’s Nationalist Politics Are Back – National Review
While conservatives are more than within their rights to write off Trump, they would be neither wise nor justified to write off the Jacksonians. They may be disgusted with Trump’s antics, and they may find some Jacksonian positions inchoate, wrongheaded,…
Jonathan Chait: The Fearmonger Republicans Have Been Waiting For – NYMag
The post-Bush-doctrine Republican Party is no longer guided by an idealistic and impractical vision for defeating radical Islam. All it has left is a residue of fear and nationalism, ripe for manipulation by a demagogue. The logic of Trump’s conquest…
Posted in Neo-Imperialism, Noted & Quoted, Politics Tagged with: Bush Doctrine, Republican Party, Trump
@Noahpinion: “if this doesn’t impress you, you’re *choosing* not to be impressed.” – Twitter
“@ViscidKonrad Man, if this doesn’t impress you, you’re *choosing* not to be impressed.” From: Noah Smith on Twitter: “@ViscidKonrad Man, if this doesn’t impress you, you’re *choosing* not to be impressed. https://t.co/RHqXRjU4WI”
Jacksonian Neo-Isolationism 2
Put more simply: The failure of the neocon project led to, as a practical matter seemed to require, the replacement of neo-imperialism with xenophobia in Republican conservative rhetoric. To those capable of setting aside their judgments of the American approach to…
Conservative Neo-Imperialism vs Jacksonian Neo-Isolationism
As for Trumpism vs. Bushism, one will be no less dependent on “populist nationalism” than the other, to whatever extent it is also successful: In a mass electoralist national system under popular sovereignty, the winner will always be the truest national populist, by definition, if not necessarily the purest national populist according to some external or merely intellectual standard.
Posted in Featured, Neo-Imperialism, Politics Tagged with: Jacksonianism, Neo-Isolationism, Withdrawalism
Noble Liars 2: “Clearly the world has disappointed him”
“He is a brilliant guy, but he has a real problem with what I call the assignment of bad faith,” one former senior official told me of the president. “He regards everyone on the other side at this point as…
…so who are the “noble liars” now?
When I asked whether the prospect of this same kind of far-reaching spin campaign being run by a different administration is something that scares him, he admitted that it does. “I mean, I’d prefer a sober, reasoned public debate, after…
Posted in Neo-Imperialism, notes, Political Philosophy Tagged with: Ben Rhodes, Iran, Obama Doctrine
“described fairly”
[T]hese days American self-government is indistinguishable from self-incrimination. Our domestic policy is a nest of rent-seeking corruption, our social insurance system is an act of theft against posterity. And our foreign policy, described fairly, resembles the last weeks of a…