The Neocons Strike Back

[babylonsister]

http://prospect.org/waldman/neocons-strike-back

The Neocons Strike Back
By Paul Waldman | Posted March 15, 2015


snip//

On Sunday, one such hawk, Joshua Muravchik, wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post stating bluntly what many of them were probably thinking but were afraid to say: Iran's leaders can't be reasoned with, sanctions won't work, and that leaves us with only one alternative. "Does this mean that our only option is war? Yes, although an air campaign targeting Iran's nuclear infrastructure would entail less need for boots on the ground than the war Obama is waging against the Islamic State, which poses far smaller a threat than Iran does." In other words: Urgent as the need for war is, this will be easy. You might even call it a cakewalk.

How many neocons read Muravchik's piece and went aquiver with delight? Sure, some people reacted with horror. But now it's been said: War isn't something we should fear or something to avoid. It should be welcomed and advocated without apology. There will be assurances of reluctance, of course—we wish it hadn't come to this, truly we do!—but there will be no shame.

That's particularly important; for such a long time, those who cheered us into war with Iraq have been told that shame is precisely what they ought to feel. But that kind of shame is not in the constitution of those who know that if you want to make an omelet, sometimes you have to bomb a few chicken farms to dust. And what Iran offers now is redemption. The success of this next war will wipe away everything that went wrong with the last one. This time, we'll get it right.

We'll destroy the Iranian nuclear facilities from the air in a series of precision strikes that leave their targets in rubble and produce no collateral damage. The people of Iran will cheer the American warplanes, then take the opportunity to overthrow the regime that has oppressed them for so long. With the Iranian problem solved, Israel will be safe and all the conflicts of the region will quiet, fade, and then disappear. Democracy and freedom will spread, for real this time. And everyone will look to the neocon hawks with admiration in their eyes and say, "You were right. You were right all along."

That is their dream. And it will be easier to realize than you may think—at least up until the point where the bombs start falling. Spend the next year and a half sowing the seeds, writing the op-eds, going on television, giving the speeches, making the dark predictions of cataclysm should we fail to muster the courage to act. If the Iranians walk away from negotiations, declare that we now have no choice but to use force; if there is an agreement, declare that its weakness is precisely why we have no choice but to use force. Condemn those who disagree as weaklings who refuse to stand up to the ayatollahs and their plan to destroy Israel and then the United States. Pressure the Republican presidential candidates to take the most hawkish position possible, as they compete to see who's the toughest and strongest. If next November brings the blessed return of a Republican to the White House, with a Republican Congress behind him, the war will be all but begun.

Yes, the neocon moment may be at hand once again. Aren't you excited?

[malaise]

1. Because war is very profitable and we can loot plunder and slaughter

all them brown folks who really don't matter.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

3. It is a triple orgasm for ALL cons, they get to murder brown people by the thousands

like George W Bush did gleefully.

They get to send YOUR child, NOT theirs, to do the dying.

They get to push it in Obama's face that his attempt at diplomacy failed, which it may well do for a variety of reasons.

I am running out of rage...every single fucking day a rightwinger or teapartier in our government or here on DU or in the public does or says something that we should ALL be infuriated about, but little we can do about

[KG]

2. neo-cons, neo-libs. both parties happy to pretend iran is a threat to world peace.

[bemildred]

4. Speaking of people who can't be reasoned with ... nt

[shraby]

5. That sounds a lot..a hell of a lot like the plans they had for Iraq.

The people will greet us with lollipops and cheers, etc.

What happens when Iran uses it's military forces against us? They have some which Iraq did not and look at the trouble we got from a virtually unarmed Iraq? Iran will NOT be a cakewalk. What's the matter with the neocons? I don't think they are right in the head.

[IDemo]

6. He just left out:

The IMF and World Bank along with American corporations will then swoop in with the speed of an F-35 and spread wonderful commerce everywhere in the name of freedom. At the expense of certain portions of the population, that is.

[hifiguy]

7. Some people just want to see the world burn.

They are psychopaths and nihilists.