Democratic Hawks and the Strategic Class

The prominence of Democratic party leaders like Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton who support the US occupation of Iraq presents the Democrats with an odd dilemma. At a time when the American people are turning against the Iraq War and favor a withdrawal of US troops, why are the leading Democratic presidential candidates for '08 unapologetic war hawks? The continued high standing of the hawks has been made possible by their enablers in the strategic class--the foreign policy advisers, think-tank specialists and pundits. Since 9/11 this group has risen in prominence, egging on and underpinning elected officials, crowding out dissenters within its own ranks and becoming increasingly ideologically monolithic. So far its members remain unchallenged. It's more than a little ironic that the people who got Iraq so wrong continue to tell the Democrats how to get it right.

For more on this, read The Strategic Class