Posted on 05/25/2003 6:32:57 PM PDT by LibertarianInExile
State of Confusion
Brouhahas — intellectual and otherwise.
Conservatives are accustomed to liberals not understanding the zoology of our movement. But the use and abuse of the term "neoconservative" has exceeded even the high allowance for cliché and ignorance generally afforded to those who write or talk about conservatism from outside the conservative ant farm. In fact, neoconservative has become a Trojan Horse for vast arsenal of ideological attacks and insinuations. For some it means Jewish conservative. For others it means hawk. A few still think it means squishy conservative or ex-liberal. And a few don't even know what the word means, they just think it makes them sound knowledgeable when they use it. [excerpt]
The Neoconservative Invention
No new kid on the block.
The word "neoconservative" was coined by Michael Harrington and the editors of Dissent to describe their old friends who'd moved to the right. It was an insult, along the lines of "running dog" or "fellow traveler." Or perhaps the "neo" was intended to conjure "neo-Nazi," the only other political label to sport the prefix. As Seymour Martin Lipset, one of the most-respected social scientists of the 20th century and an original neocon wrote, the term "was invented as an invidious label to undermine political opponents, most of whom have been unhappy with being so described." [excerpt]
The End of Neoconservatism
Debunking the myths.
All of the fulminating about the Jews, about war lust, about neocons running everything would be forgivable, even tolerable, if it were intellectually defensible. But the neoconservative label distorts more than it reveals. As Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride might say to all of these people, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." [excerpt]
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Gingrich was right... correct, though the president's policies didn't have a thing to do with the point Gingrich was attempting to make. What he said had nothing to do with Bush OR Powell, an important point all of the media seems to have missed, as did the White House. Gingrich was talking about career Arabists within the State Department.
In order for the leader of the State Department to create policy for any particular country, he needs to rely on the advice of those who are dedicated to understanding the languages & cultures of the region in question.
Run a search on "Arabist" & you might better understand what I'm getting at. http://www.danielpipes.org/article/885 http://www.yahoodi.com/peace/arabists.html http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/081285/850812003.html
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