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| Home Front: Politix |
| Andrew Sullivan: Civil War In Republican Party |
| 2006-07-27 |
| The conservative pundit/religious right hater, Andrew Sullivan, sees a WOT hardline forming, and misreads it as a Party coup against Neo-Cons. No way! The hardline has always been there. Sullivan mentions unsettling facts such as Iraqi Parliamentary support for Hizbollah, but says nothing of potential Arab re-alignment against Shiite Iranians. And who says that President Bush won't defer to hard-liners? Newt Gingrich recently declared that our current military-political position was "World War III." But Bush said that in a May interview with AFP (France). Maybe a pre-emptive war climate isn't best suited for advancing democracy. A consensus is building on WOT revamping. by Andrew Sullivan ...To be fair, some neoconservatives long expected this potential irony. Their ultimate analysis of the Middle East was, to my mind, a largely persuasive one. It was that decades of propping up Arab dictatorships and kleptocracies in return for cheap oil was no longer a viable foreign policy. The repression in the region had given life and legitimacy to radical Islamism, spawned terror, and eventually cost the lives of thousands of Americans. The only way to tackle this problem at its roots was to shift American policy towards favouring democracy in the Muslim and Arab world - even if this meant instability and an Islamist explosion in the short term. In the medium and long run, neocons hoped, democratically elected governments would behave more rationally towards the West and Israel - and to their own citizens. In theory, this makes a good deal of sense - and neocons are, of all people, adept at theory. The trouble, of course, is that theory always melts when it meets something called reality. And non-neoconservatism has always been defined as a political temperament acutely aware of the discrepancy between theory and practice. It is, from Edmund Burke through to Michael Oakeshott, a tradition that grasps that imperfection, doubt and complexity are the only reliable guides to navigating politics - and life as a whole. Conservatives are not averse to theory or argument - they just understood that it is never, ever enough in the world of practical life... |
| Posted by:Griper Whegum8464 |
| #12 Andrew Sullivan is to Conservatives what Grima Wormtongue was to King Theoden. |
| Posted by: Gandalf the White 2006-07-27 19:54 |
| #11 Sad. |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2006-07-27 18:50 |
| #10 Andrew, you bore me Carefull, or he jus might "bore" you |
| Posted by: Captain America 2006-07-27 17:25 |
| #9 Sea, I think it's the "Vietnam" of intra-party debate. We may very well see our own My Lai here soon, too, lol! And, I take deep dispute with his "neocons are only good at theory" crack. In fact, I'd argue that Repubs are the ONLY ones looking at reality dead in the face, not liking what they see, and changing TACTICS to fit the situation. Yeah, maybe we "democratized Palestine" to get Hamas as a result, or we democratize Iraq to get nutcases like al-Sadr in power, but hey, let's completely ignore the (not so minor) changes in Saudi, Kuwait (women voting and running for positions), Egypt (yeah, we got Muslim Brotherhood there too), Libya dropping its nuke program, Afghanistan settling down after thousands of years of civil war, etc. |
| Posted by: BA 2006-07-27 13:19 |
| #8 Andrew is a bitter old queen. |
| Posted by: Ulaitch Phater3654 2006-07-27 12:50 |
| #7 I've been torturing neocons in my basement all morning, and I have come to the realization that they are not organized into cells that take orders from Karl Rove, but just clear thinkers. Another wasted day. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2006-07-27 12:29 |
| #6 Why, it's practically the Abu Ghraib of intra-party debate! |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2006-07-27 11:09 |
| #5 Andrew, you bore me. |
| Posted by: mcsegeek1 2006-07-27 10:37 |
| #4 It's no wonder why this flame thrower was chosen to be the Time Mag. blogger. He is just using the word "Civil War" as an attention getter. If he used word "debate," he wouldn't be invited to the MSM talk shows. There is a debate among neoconservative and conservatives and the neoconservative theory of spreading democracy in the ME and open borders is no longer in play. The Iraq experiment is over, but WoT, without spreading democracy, continues forever. No matter what the "debate" among conservatives, the Democrats can forget about the Presidency, for a long time. The conservatives have already come the conclusion that problem is, religion not oppression. A religion that teaches hate and martydom against Jews and Christians, as the only way to achieve forgiveness of sins. Here is a quote from today's Zawahiri tape. "It is a Jihad for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," [sic] "We will attack everywhere." The sheeple better wake up and take him at his word. Unfortunately, the only way, is to destroy the radical gene pool starting at the top. The US policy makers need to realize that forcing Israel into land for peace, significantly weakens American WoT. Land for peace only results in Jew and Christian pieces. |
| Posted by: Poison Reverse 2006-07-27 10:05 |
| #3 The left thought police think that dissention and disscusion are a civil war. When push comes to shove, we still will vote against your stupid ass. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2006-07-27 09:18 |
| #2 This, from a guy who thinks a hike in the gas tax is just fine (since he doesn't own a car). Asshat. |
| Posted by: Raj 2006-07-27 08:18 |
| #1 compared to the uncivil war that rages on the Donk left |
| Posted by: mhw 2006-07-27 07:59 |