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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNeocons’ Ferguson freakout: Why their latest attack on Obama makes them look so silly
Neocons Ferguson freakout: Why their latest attack on Obama makes them look so sillyby Elias Isquith at Salon
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/25/neocons_ferguson_freakout_why_their_latest_attack_on_obama_makes_them_look_so_silly/
"SNIP.......................
To state the obvious, it is not surprising to find neoconservatives blasting the president, even if hes currently launching a war against ISIS that, in significant respects, justifies itself intellectually through neoconservative-friendly arguments. Dedicated neoconservatives tend to be rigid partisans when it comes to politics, uninterested in compromise and focused primarily on controlling U.S. military power. Whats striking about the neocon attack isnt its churlishness, therefore, but rather its transparency. Think of the characteristic emotional tics of neoconservatism its paranoia, its insecurity, its obsessive fear of looking weak and look back again at the words of the presidents neocon critics. Theyre all there.
An example: For Cheney, Krauthammer and Grenell, the obvious but unstated assumption is that an American president addressing the United Nations must do so as if he has something to hide. Obamas attempt to emphasize the U.S.s role as both leader and member of the international order to approach the world as an eager partner instead of an overbearing hegemon is offensive to them because it treats the idea of a global community as an aspiration instead of a nuisance. Most neoconservatives, as Grenells old boss Bolton infamously made plain, arent much interested in the idea of a U.N. Since the U.S. can militarily do almost whatever it wants, they dont see the purpose.
Along the same lines, the response from all three men included expressions of outrage at the presidents supposedly drawing a moral equivalence between ISIS and Fergusons police. The fear of the pernicious results of moral equivalency can be found throughout the right, but in the realm of foreign policy, its most pronounced among neoconservatives, for whom any recognition of the most basic shared humanity between the U.S. and its foes and Im talking basic, here; like the capacity to make mistakes is tantamount to swearing off any claim to moral legitimacy. The fact that the United States is a more humane, responsible and decent global citizen than the genocidal ISIS is obvious enough to most of us (and not saying much, either). But, again, the neocons are the exception.
Finally, the neocon pushback also highlights what is to my mind one of their most distinctive and revealing features their utter lack of interest in domestic policy. Neo-imperialists that they are, neocons often see domestic politics solely through the lens of foreign affairs. And because theyre so zeroed-in on what they imagine the worlds perception of the U.S. is (as well as what it should be), theyll not infrequently analyze domestic events with a kind of myopia that prioritizes the U.S. #brand above all else. Richard Grenell doesnt know enough about the goings on in Ferguson to understand that Michael Browns killing had nothing to do with his alleged robbery, which officer Darren Wilson did not know of when he came into conflict with the teen. He refers to it as a burglary-turned-shooting. (I suppose we could chalk Grenells mistake up to laziness and/or a desire to mislead, but Im feeling generous.)
........................SNIP"
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Neocons’ Ferguson freakout: Why their latest attack on Obama makes them look so silly (Original Post)
applegrove
Sep 2014
OP
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)1. Good read. k&r
applegrove
(118,635 posts)2. Neocons are desperate to control the narrative on themselves. They
had their time and they effed up.