[FoRK] At the risk of inflaming JB and others ...

[Jeff Bone]

On Mar 29, 2008, at 9:18 AM, James Tauber wrote:

> There are two strands of conservatism on the US right that Hitch has  
> always opposed. The first was the Barry Goldwater-Pat Buchanan  
> isolationist right. They argued for "America First" - disengagement  
> from the world, and the abandonment of Europe to fascism. The second  
> was the Henry Kissinger right, which argued for the installation of  
> pro-American, pro-business regimes, even if it meant liquidating  
> democracies (as in Chile or Iran) and supporting and equipping  
> practitioners of genocide.
>
> He believes neoconservatism is a distinctively new strain of  
> thought, preached by ex-leftists, who believed in using US power to  
> spread democracy. "It's explicitly anti-Kissingerian. Kissinger  
> hates this stuff. He opposed intervening in the Balkans. Kissinger  
> Associates were dead against [the war in] Iraq. He can't understand  
> the idea of backing democracy - it's totally alien to him."

Don't believe for a second that the actual goal of the neo-cons is the  
propagation of democracy and capitalism, and claiming to support  
democracy has better public relations value and thus serves their  
political needs.  Means, not end.  They only advocate that on the  
surface because in practice so-called democracies are, in many ways,  
easier to subvert and control than autocracies.  It was Kissinger that  
acted out of character in failing to support Iraq;  at the end of the  
day, in many ways the neo-cons could be described as "more Kissinger  
than Kissinger" in wanting to install pro-American and pro-business  
puppet regimes.

jb