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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNeoCons Have Weathered the Storm and now Back Shaping US Geopolitical Strategy (Ukraine & Putin)
Published on Friday, March 14, 2014 by Consortium News
Neocons Have Weathered the Storm
Official Washingtons bipartisan hysteria over Ukraine and Crimea is evidence that the neocons not only weathered the public fury over the Iraq War but are now back shaping U.S. geopolitical strategies
by Robert Parry
By the middle of last decade, the storm clouds were building over the neocons: their regime change in Iraq was a disaster; President George W. Bushs Mission Accomplished speech was a running joke; news articles were appearing about their dark side behavior in the war on terror; and the public was tired of the blood and treasure being wasted.
You might have expected that the neocons would have been banished to the farthest reaches of U.S. policymaking, so far away that they would never be heard from again. However, instead of disappearing, the neocons have proved their staying power, now reemerging as the architects of the U.S. strategy toward Ukraine.
Neocons played key behind-the-scenes roles in instigating the Feb. 22 coup that overthrew a democratically elected president with the help of neo-Nazi militias; the neocons have since whipped Official Washington into a frenzy of bipartisan support for the coup regime; and they are pushing for a new Cold War if the people of Crimea vote to leave Ukraine and join Russia.
A few weeks ago, most Americans probably had never heard of Ukraine and had no idea that Crimea was part of it. But, all of a sudden, the deficit-obsessed U.S. Congress is rushing to send billions of dollars to the coup regime in Kiev, as if the future of Ukraine were the most important issue facing the American people.
Even opinion writers who have resisted other neocon-driven stampedes have joined this one, apparently out of fear of being labeled an apologist for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Indeed, it is almost impossible to find any mainstream U.S. politician or pundit who has not fallen into line with the belligerent neocon position on Ukraine.
--snip--
But this stunning turn of fate would have been hard to predict after the neocons had steered the United States into the catastrophic Iraq War and its ugly bloodletting, including the death and maiming of tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers and the squandering of perhaps $1 trillion in U.S. taxpayers money.
MUCH MORE WITH BACKGROUND and INFO on the EFFORT to DESTABILIZE or REPLACE PUTIN nd the Ramping up of action on SYRIA AND IRAN if they can Weaken Putin...
Interesting Read...but, depressing...
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/14-9
2banon
(7,321 posts)Who knew the State Dept would continue to be dominated by Neo Cons during a "progressive" Administration?
The Comeback
But the neocons were anything but finished. They had positioned themselves wisely.
They still controlled government-funded operations like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED); they held prominent positions inside think tanks, from the American Enterprise Institute to the Council on Foreign Relations to the Brookings Institution; they had powerful allies in Congress, such as Senators McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman; and they dominated TV chat shows and opinion pages, particularly at the Washington Post, the capitals hometown newspaper.
Since the late 1970s and early 1980s when they first emerged as a noticeable force in Washington, the neocons had become insiders. They were both admired and feared for their intellectual ferocity, but most important for their long-term survival they had secured access to government money, including the slush fund at NED whose budget grew to over $100 million during the Bush-43 years.
NED, which was founded in 1983, is best known for investing in other countries democracy building (or CIA-style destabilization campaigns, depending on your point of view), but much of NEDs money actually goes to NGOs in Washington, meaning that it became a lifeline for neocon operatives who found themselves out of work because of the arrival of Obama.
--snip---
Catherina
(35,568 posts)Some neocons never left, others crossed over to the Democratic Party and repackaged themselves as neolibs where they're pushing for the same wars, the same privatizations, the same cuts to social/medical services.
And never once has there been an apology, just pushing for more of their crap.
Wake up Democrats. This is how both parties are co-opted by the same capital interests and they walk all over what the voters want.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)By Will Englund
MOSCOW Opposition to Russias intervention in Ukraine sparked an unexpectedly large protest march here Saturday, as tens of thousands of demonstrators waving Ukrainian, Russian and European Union flags chanted No war! and Russia without Putin.
They wore armbands and ribbons in the Ukrainian colors of blue and yellow, ribbons in Russias white, blue and red, and the plain white ribbons that were a hallmark of the large rallies against President Vladimir Putin that blossomed and then faltered in 2012.
Saturdays protest revived many of the slogans and attitudes that first arose on the streets two years ago. But several of the opposition leaders of 2012 including Alexei Navalny and Sergei Udaltsov were missing, both under house arrest.
Members of the punk group Pussy Riot, released from prison earlier this year, did make an appearance.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/in-moscow-tens-of-thousands-turn-out-to-protest-russian-intervention-in-ukraine/2014/03/15/a3b35c34-caa3-49ee-9612-d6e883535eb8_story.html
BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow: "There has been a sense of anger and shame at the Kremlin"
Tens of thousands have joined a rally in the Russian capital Moscow to oppose its intervention in Ukraine, a day before Crimeans vote on whether to secede and join Russia.
Holding Russian and Ukrainian flags, they shouted: "The occupation of Crimea is Russia's disgrace." A smaller pro-Moscow rally was being held elsewhere.
<...>
Tens of thousands - possibly as many as 50,000 - attended the rally in Moscow to oppose the government's intervention in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26593249
There is video at the link.
warrprayer
(4,734 posts)jsr
(7,712 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)UNITED NATIONS (AP) Russia has vetoed a U.N. resolution declaring Sunday's referendum on the future of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula illegal, but its close ally China abstained in a show of Moscow's isolation.
Supporters of the U.S.-sponsored resolution knew that Russia would use its veto. But they put the resolution to a vote Saturday morning to show the strength of opposition to Moscow's takeover of Crimea. The 13 other council members voted "yes."
The resolution would have reaffirmed the council's commitment to Ukraine's "sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity."
<...>
China is very sensitive to the issue of territorial integrity because of Tibet and other restive areas, and China's U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi reiterated Beijing's support again Thursday for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and for not interfering in other countries' internal affairs.
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/03/15/russia-vetoes-un-resolution-crimea/6456495/
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)this is some funny stuff:
<...>
Obama compounded this stay-behind problem with his fateful decision in November 2008 to adopt the trendy idea of a team of rivals, including keeping Republican operative (and neocon ally) Robert Gates at the Defense Department and putting hawkish Democrat Hillary Clinton, another neocon ally, at State....Defense Secretary Gates then collaborated with holdovers from Bushs high command, including neocon favorite Gen. David Petraeus, and Secretary of State Clinton to maneuver Obama into a political corner from which he felt he had no choice but to accede to their recommendation for the surge.
Obama reportedly regretted the decision almost immediately after he made it...Though Obamas original team of rivals eventually left the scene (Gates in mid-2011, Petraeus in a sex scandal in late 2012, and Clinton in early 2013), those three provided the neocons a crucial respite, time to regroup and reorganize. So, when Sen. John Kerry replaced Clinton as Secretary of State (with the considerable help of his neocon friend John McCain), the State Departments neocons were poised for a powerful comeback.
That's some serious CT. I mean, does Parry realize that the other person being pushed was Susan Rice?
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)limit to respond?
ProSense
(116,464 posts)http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024668994
Crimea: Attacks, Disappearances by Illegal Forces
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024668942
Autumn
(45,120 posts)A storm was in the forecast, but they were given warning and shelter. These neocons are needed, by the wealthy and our so called leaders.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)That was an eyeopener. Parry is correct the braying media are pushing the NeoCon shovel, once again.
It's disgusting to see the resurgence of McCarthyite 'loyalty tests' and J. Edgar Hoover 'secret lists' (NSA Spying on the People) makes me realize that this malignancy in our Democracy never went away and won't until the stables are cleaned out. However, the best chance for the "clean out" came and went as Parry's article documents.
We have to hope that the NeoCon's hubris and over reach will cause such a backlash from other nations going forward that they will eventually implode on their own or an unexpected intervention from somewhere within saves the USA from itself.
Autumn
(45,120 posts)And he's a myth.
zeemike
(18,998 posts)And every new world event creates a new one...you are either with us or against us.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Just when the army announced cuts of 80,000 soldiers, we hear drum beats.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Because there is NO alternate policy proposal.
After all, staying home and minding one's own business is Isolationism....how are we gonna conquer the world with that?
No, it's Isolationism that's been sent to the corner, every time. For no good reason that I've ever seen or heard. Other than that the Global Corporate Fascist movement can't accomplish its goals by Isolationism....