Bush Pulls Neocons Out of the Shadows (Nixon Center pres: extremist in WH)

[DeepModem Mom]

Los Angeles Times

Bush Pulls 'Neocons' Out of the Shadows
By Doyle McManus, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — In the unending struggle over American foreign policy that consumes much of official Washington, one side claimed a victory this week: the neoconservatives, that determined band of hawkish idealists who promoted the U.S. invasion of Iraq and now seek to bring democracy to the rest of the Middle East.

For more than a year, since the occupation of Iraq turned into the Bush administration's biggest headache, many of the "neocons" have lowered their profiles and muted their rhetoric. During President Bush's reelection campaign, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, one of the leading voices for invading Iraq, virtually disappeared from public view.

But on Thursday, Bush proclaimed in his inaugural address that the central purpose of his second term would be the promotion of democracy "in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world" — a key neoconservative goal. Suddenly, the neocons were ascendant again....

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"If Bush means it literally, then it means we have an extremist in the White House," said Dimitri Simes, president of the Nixon Center, a conservative think tank that reveres the less idealistic policies of Richard Nixon. "I hope and pray that he didn't mean it … that it was merely an inspirational speech, not practical guidance for the conduct of foreign policy."...


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-neocons22jan22,0,1039680.story?coll=la-home-headlines