neoconservatives

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We Need to Sell Young People on War

 We Need to Sell 
 Young People 
 on War 
OPINION

We Need to Sell Young People on War

Stephen Rosen sees a generation gap on national security issues

(Newser) - Americans in their 50s and 60s largely understand the positive power of the US military. They saw a military buildup end the Cold War, and witnessed successful interventions in Serbia and Iraq in the 90s, Harvard professor Stephen Peter Rosen—a member of that generation—writes in the Wall Street ...

Forget Libya. Syria Is Obama's Top Screw-Up

President's miscues have created a strategic disaster, Jackson Diehl argues

(Newser) - The Romney campaign is eager to attack President Obama over the attack on the US consulate in Libya. But that was ultimately the result of "poor security decisions by mid-level State Department officials, not policy choices by Obama," writes Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post . If you want...

Hawks Should Applaud Iraq Speech
 Hawks Should Applaud 
 Iraq Speech 
William Kristol

Hawks Should Applaud Iraq Speech

The president showed respect for a war he opposed

(Newser) - Even the staunchest Iraq war supporters had to be happy with the speech Barack Obama delivered last night to mark the end of combat operations, writes William Kristol of the Weekly Standard . “President Obama opposed the war in Iraq. He still thinks it was a mistake,” he reasons....

Steele: 'Stop the Noise,' I'm Not Quitting

RNC chief won't be stepping down over latest flap

(Newser) - The neocons who wanted Michael Steele to quit as RNC chief can forget it. "Every time something happens, people say, 'He should step down,'" Steele said in Colorado today. "The reality is that's not happening, so stop the noise on that. You don't need the distraction. We're...

Afghan Rift? It's Just 'Smoke and Puffery'
Afghan Rift?
It's Just 'Smoke and Puffery'
OPINION

Afghan Rift? It's Just 'Smoke and Puffery'

McCain, others inflate controversy so Obama looks weak: Klein

(Newser) - There’s been much consternation recently about the supposed break between the White House and Stanley McChrystal over strategy in Afghanistan. But it’s really all “smoke and puffery,” a political ruse perpetrated by John McCain and some neocon compatriots, writes Joe Klein in Time. The furor has...

Iran Not Nearly as Crazy as Neocons Claim
Iran Not Nearly as Crazy as Neocons Claim
OPINION

Iran Not Nearly as Crazy as Neocons Claim

Its leaders aren't stupid—and deterrence can work: Greenway

(Newser) - Iran has no nuclear bomb, but already the old Bush-Cheney chorus has returned to insist it's time for another war in the Middle East. It's true that sanctions may not stop Iran from ramping up its nuclear program, but that doesn't mean that deterrence and diplomacy can't help, writes Boston ...

This Looks Like a Job for the Neocons

Time for America to start flexing its muscles instead of making deals

(Newser) - Neoconservatives are making a comeback and it's about time, writes Bret Stephens. They're back "because Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, and Vladimir Putin never went away," Stephens writes in the Wall Street Journal, and because the world wants America to use its strength to stop Iran and North...

Bill Kristol: Thanks, Dad
 Bill Kristol: 
 Thanks, Dad 

Bill Kristol: Thanks, Dad

(Newser) - Bill Kristol remembers his late father as a man of a "deep modesty" who "loved intellectual pursuits but always shunned intellectual pretension." Irving Kristol, who died earlier this month at age 89, is generally regarded as the architect of neoconservatism, but the honors he accrued never gave...

Sullivan: That's Not Weakness, It's Confidence

(Newser) - The "usual suspects" in the neoconservative camp are apoplectic at President Obama's behavior at the UN, writes Andrew Sullivan. After all, he had the nerve to "engage foreign powers as equals rather than as subordinates." Obama's critics, of course, see America as always in the right—even...

Counterculture Made Kristol an Ex-Liberal
Counterculture Made Kristol
an Ex-Liberal  
appreciation

Counterculture Made Kristol an Ex-Liberal

Fear of post-'60s 'moral crisis' spurred neocon's shift right

(Newser) - "Neoconservative" was originally a label applied to newly conservative ex-liberals and Irving Kristol, the late godfather of the movement, was among the first and finest of the kind, E. J. Dionne writes in the Washington Post. Kristol made a powerful case for "pragmatic liberalist" when he was still...

Neocon Founder Kristol Dead at 89

A former liberal, he sparked ideas behind the Reagan Revolution

(Newser) - Irving Kristol, the "godfather" of neoconservatism and a key intellectual force behind the Reagan Revolution, died today from lung cancer in Arlington, Va., the Washington Post reports. He was 89. Once a New York liberal, Kristol grew disaffected with liberalism in the 1940s and founded conservative magazines like...

Obama 'Weakened' by Neocons: bin Laden

New tape says 'war of attrition' will continue so long as US backs Israel

(Newser) - President Obama is “a weakened man,” says Osama bin Laden in a new audiotape titled “A statement to the American people," citing his retention of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and other Bush officials. "The bitter truth is that the neoconservatives continue to cast their heavy...

Foreign Policy 101: Jay-Z's Feud With The Game
Foreign Policy 101:
 Jay-Z's Feud With The Game
OPINION

Foreign Policy 101: Jay-Z's Feud With The Game

(Newser) - What does the burgeoning beef between rappers Jay-Z and The Game have in common with US foreign policy? Plenty, writes Marc Lynch in Foreign Policy. Like America, Jay-Z is a hegemon: “Nobody, but nobody, in the hip-hop world has his combination of hard power and soft power.” But...

Obama Shares McNamara's Fatal Flaw
 Obama Shares 
 McNamara's Fatal Flaw 
OPINION

Obama Shares McNamara's Fatal Flaw

(Newser) - For some the death of Robert McNamara was the last chapter of a bygone disaster, but as George Will writes, Barack Obama and his team have more in common with the architect of Vietnam than they realize. McNamara's "eerie assuredness pervades the Washington in which he died," writes...

Obama Can Lead a Peaceful World: Kissinger
Obama Can Lead a Peaceful World: Kissinger
INTERVIEW

Obama Can Lead a Peaceful World: Kissinger

Former secretary of state admires president's early moves

(Newser) - Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger has warm words for President Obama, whom he describes as "like a chess player who has opened his game with an unusual opening" in an interview with Der Spiegel. "I have no quarrel with the opening move," he adds. "I...

Obama's Wrong: He Must Take Sides in Iran
Obama's Wrong:
He Must Take Sides in Iran
OPINION

Obama's Wrong: He Must Take Sides in Iran

He's deserting the brave revolutionaries: Krauthammer

(Newser) - Electoral fraud fueled the protests in Iran, but now there is a full-fledged revolution brewing—and according to Charles Krauthammer, the demonstrators are desperate for just one signal that the US supports them. Instead, President Obama has pledged "dialogue" with a "clerical dictator" and left the green revolutionaries...

Obama's Right: Pragmatism Is Only Way
Obama's Right:
Pragmatism
Is Only Way
OPINION

Obama's Right: Pragmatism Is Only Way

It may anger neocons, but he should keep his hands clean: Stephens

(Newser) - Barack Obama and his team clearly want to support the Iranian opposition, writes Philip Stephens, and Republicans such as John McCain have hammered the president for not condemning an election viewed as a sham. But for the Financial Times columnist, Obama is striking a shrewd balance between idealism and real-world...

Krauthammer Hails Fox News as 'Alternate Reality'

Krauthammer calls network an American treasure

(Newser) - The New York Post awarded Charles Krauthammer a prize yesterday, and the veteran neocon columnist used his acceptance speech to praise "the genius of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes" for the miracle of Fox News. The network "created an alternate reality," he said, offering an alternative to...

Bush's Top Neocon Denies Existence of Neocons
Bush's Top Neocon Denies Existence of Neocons
OPINION

Bush's Top Neocon Denies Existence of Neocons

To widespread guffaws

(Newser) -  In real life, Richard Perle is the neoconservative mastermind who devised the Bush Doctrine and argued vociferously for the Iraq war. But apparently, Perle lives in a different world, writes Dana Milbank of the Washington Post. At a foreign policy forum yesterday, Perle insisted that:
  • He is not a
...

Tenet Denies Drunken Rant About 'the Jews'

Pressured CIA chief spilled fears to Saudi prince

(Newser) - George Tenet is vehemently denying a report in a new book that the then-CIA director railed against Bush administration neocons, "referring to them with exaxperation [sic] as, 'the Jews,'" the Atlantic reports. The incident took place in Saudi Prince Bandar's pool after Tenet downed half a bottle of...

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