(Military Times) Op-Ed: The Neocons' Liberal Brethren?

[unhappycamper]

The Neocons' Liberal Brethren?
Ivan Eland | November 13, 2008

The media and the Washington foreign policy elite breathed a sigh of relief when Barack Obama thumped John McCain in the election. Had John McCain won, there was always the chance that the neoconservatives would have beaten out the Republican realists for his foreign policy soul. With a victory by the liberal Obama, however, the stake would finally be driven into the heart of the "jingoistic" neoconservative vampire.

Yet even after Obama takes power, an evil foreign policy ghoul will still hover over the White House—this time wearing the benign clothes of a compassionate angel. Obama's top foreign policy advisors include Susan Rice, a member of the "muscular liberal" crowd—you know, the same crew that includes the bombing progressives Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke. In a National Public Radio interview during the campaign, Rice decried President George W. Bush's invasion and nation-building adventure in Iraq, while at the same time advocating U.S. intervention and nation-building in Darfur, Sudan.

Muscular liberals and neoconservatives hate each other only because they are so much alike. Although neoconservatives feel less favorable toward any U.N. or other multilateral veneer for the mailed U.S. fist than muscular liberals, they still love to invade other nations for righteous reasons—that is, to save the world or make it more like us.

But I should not criticize a president—whether Democratic or Republican—before he even takes office and actually does something. Perhaps Obama will directly address the foreign policy demons in his own party. He originally had good instincts about a rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, but over the course of the campaign, tempered his position as the U.S. surge seemed to "work." No doubt, behind the scenes, his foreign policy "experts" have warned him of all the alleged pitfalls of such an expedited exit.

By paying off, arming, and training the Sunni militias in Iraq (the U.S. had previously done the same thing with the Iraqi forces, which had been infiltrated by Kurdish and Shi'i militias), the Bush administration has tamed down the violence until it is safely out of office, but this also likely will make a future civil war among the groups even more intense. Obama should pay attention to his instincts—not his advisers—and take advantage of the lull in violence to get out while the gettin's good.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,179137,00.html?wh=wh