McCain Camp Is Neocon Redux: It's Official

Speaking Monday at a fascinating on-the-record session on U.S.-Russia relations at the Nixon Center, former Reagan administration official Robert McFarlane declared that McCain's first year as president would be "neocon redux." McFarlane, who was Reagan's national security advisor and who supports McCain's candidacy, emphasized that he wasn't speaking as a member of McCain's team, but as a practical realist and private citizen. His remarks were uttered in a calm tone, and all the more blistering for it. McFarlane pointed out that Ronald Reagan was dealing with a declining Soviet Union and from a position of strength, while McCain would be dealing with a resurgent Russia, one that it would be foolish to heedlessly antagonize. According to McFarlane, "the youngsters" would run foreign policy the first year and then likely be "fired" by the second after they mess up.

My ears perked up when I heard this assessment because it confirms what I've been hearing elsewhere: while Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft, and other realist elders are consulted by McCain, his heart is with the younger neocons, the "beavers," in the words of one McCain supporter, who draft the speeches and get the grunt work done. As Fareed Zakaria points out in the Washington Post today, the result is disastrous recommendations such as threatening to expel Russia from the G-8. In the aftermath of the Iraq debacle, the U.S. needs allies, not enemies. But the neocons don't see it that way.

The gap -- and it is fundamental -- in the GOP today is generational. The elderly realists haven't groomed anyone to replace them. The neocons have. Hence neocon redux. When someone of McFarlane's stature offers the assessment that the neocons are in charge, then it's pretty much official. The longer the election campaign goes on, the clearer it becomes that the neocons aren't back. They never went away.

Comments

[ApolloSpeaks]

And here to stay!

[Scipio]

Is this perhaps a Reagan GOP-vs.-Bush GOP internecine squabble, one that became apparent to news nuts like me during the Photo Op of the Century Week that Ronald died. Does anyone else recall how embarrassed the Reagan family (excepting Mike) became in proximity to G.W.B.? Even at his nastiest and most clueless, Pat Buchanan sounds more like a Reagan Republican than a neocon, while the parade of prejudiced pundits at Fox are Wright-boating Barack and trading talking points with Mrs. Clinton.

[Garvagh]

John McCain's hostility toward Russia is a formula for further disasters in the Middle East, because Russia is strongly motivated to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapons capability and is much better placed to attempt to work out a solution than is this country.

John McCain's election would be a catastophe for this country. His notion that an imperial America can impose its will on hundreds of millions of hostile Muslims in the Middle East is insane.

[ApolloSpeaks]

You've got it wrong: Iran is the revolutionary power that wants to impose its oppressive theocratic government on Islam and the world. Don't take my word for it, read the works of Ayatollah Khomeine and article 11 of Iran's constitution that calls for the unification of Islam under Iran's evil flag of sacrifice, martyrdom and death.

[wrabbitt]

If cloning is not legal where did McCain come from? He is the mirror image of the most unpopular president in history, HRC is running on a platform of SAYING she will change everything that is wrong with America. We have seen this already the way she handled health care ten years ago. How much did she make to stop trying? 800K wasn't it. What does it take to change the political mess we are in? Congress is proud of the fact that they can't get anything done, except to insure that earmarks will go on, and no spending cuts! Are they that far removed from the people that they don't know or care that we think they all need to be voted OFF THE ISLAND. Nothing gets done, nothing is going to get done unless we the people change this. Show your elected officials where you stand email the old farts and tell them to put up or go home. I hear HRC wants rev. Wright for her cabinet. Obama might be a name we don't associate with big government but isn't that what we want? A different direction! Up out of this hole we are in, If you vote for Hillary remember you asked for it! after 8 years we saw every thing we needed to see.

[desmirl]

So many of the YOUNG NEOCONS are also CHICKENHAWKS. They would never THINK of enlisting in the Army or the Marines, but at the same time they want to play brinksmanship games (testosterone based, maybe?) with China and Russia. These are the people who WOULD START ANOTHER WAR BUT NEVER FOR A MOMENT THINK OF FIGHTING IT.

[JulieSA]

I know it's reflexive with you guys, you might want to rethink the whole "chickenhawk" deal since McCain is the candidate. Just a thought.

[Ironfox]

One Hawk among the many chickens does not negate " the whole ' chickenhawk ' deal "

Perhaps more thought is required.

[ironjunkman]

any chance we could get Dick Cheney to run as vice president redux with McCain?

[rich3324]

Neocon Redux
Yea, but Obama's pastor hates America.

[ijgibson]

So no one is suggesting Rev Wright for President - or did I miss something ?

[oogabooga]

If you have any doubts whatsoever about the coup the Neocons have engineered, check this link out and look at the names at the bottom:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm
Explore the whole PNAC site. It's like their Mein Kampf. The Neocons have much more on their list of things to do. They seem to have a death wish for America. So to those angry Democrats who say they'll vote for McCain or Nader because their favorite candidate lost in the primaries: Vote for the Democratic candidate, no matter what. We have to stop the Neocon march to Hell.

[Kendo]

Did McFarlane bring along a cake and a bible to woo any pro-Western, moderate Iranians in the audience?

Ken

[bobo209]

America's Israel-centric foreign policy is focused upon making the Palestinians invisible, to hide the crimes being committed against them, as their human rights are stolen and they are swept from their ancestor's land. America is the classic "enabler" for the dysfunctional Jewish state, forcing the world to accept double standards for Israelis and Palestinians, making it possible to take away the guaranteed human rights of the native inhabitants of the land, in order to give special rights to the colonizers who had previously sworn to defend native rights. American leaders are doing everything possible to hide the suffering of the Palestinians and to twist the facts about the campaign to drive them from the land, in an effort to make it appear that all Israeli attacks are self-defense. Zionist Israel cannot continue its ambitious expansionist plans without harming its status in the world without this cloak to hide its murderous actions.

This war is driven by multiple delusions, the main error being that it can eventually be won by the application of greater and greater amounts of force. Advocates of this strategy ignore the basic immorality of the argument, that victory at any price is an acceptable cost. If the American people remember their power and are given time to think about the direction of the war, they will realize how wrong these policies are. Considering that Bush is following a policy that generates more enemies than can be killed without the use of nuclear weapons.

[MrJoyboy]

The U.S. is supremely knowledgeable about driving people off their land (ask any Native Ameican), so it makes sense that Israel would consult with us about this maneuver.

[cindysundancer]

Will Amerika really vote in a crusty old guy who has the Presidency on his bucket list?! I like McCain as a person, but then I like my mailman too, and I don't think he should be prez. McCain is too old, too out of it, has no new ideas and has sold his soul for the nomination.

I will really lose faith in our nation if he wins. The Founding Father's were correct. One should be wary of mob rule.

[BluMoonRising]

Our Nation started voting for the bright shiny wrappers the last two elections and I hold higher hopes that lessons have been learned. I heard on the radio the other day that out of stubbornness we are voting against our own best interest. How stupid is that? If you look around though it's hard to dispute...we "elected" (or did we) the last "you know what" in a shiny wrapper twice.

[BluMoonRising]

PS Might I add that if no other department in schools are doing well...Marketing sure is. Maybe it's because kids get to work early selling to keep their school floating. By the time get to college...hey, it's a cakewalk.

[martinchill]

can't wait to hear who he'll be running with.

what's jeb been up to lately?

[Toonadude]

I do believe that W has permanently fouled the nest for brother Jeb. One of my favorite visuals is to picture Thanksgiving dinner with the Bush clan where everybody sitting around the table knows what W did to Jeb’s political future. Do they talk about it openly or is it the elephant in the room that we dare not speak of ??

Plastic big happy family smiley faces everyone !!

[Tommygun264]

While I would like to believe that there is no chance of a Bush returning to the White House anytime soon, I can remeber the same thing being said after Bill Clinton defeated George H.W. Bush. Back then we believed that no one could be any worse than the first Bush, just like it seems impossible for anyone to be worse than George W. Bush. But somehow, they always manage to trot out an even less competent model a few years later and the nation slides down even further than anyone previously believed possible.

[SpinCycleRadio]

"The elderly realists haven't groomed anyone to replace them. The neocons have."

I think that the realists did try to groom replecements but Cheney and the Neocons have been effective in purging them. This is an administration that has from the start made it clear that it valued loyalty and ideological purity over competence. And they definitely valued zealotry over pragmatism. Thus any competent pragmatic non-neocon had all three strikes against them from the start (first because they were not a neocon, second because they were pragmatic and finally because their competency posed a threat of making the neocons look bad.

Unfortunately on so many levels McCain has decided to sellout to the neocon movement because after so many years of purging (not just on foreign policy but also tax policy, domestic policy, etc.) it is the only game left in the republican party.

[Synoia]

Ummm...

"first because they were not a neocon, second because they were pragmatic"

There are pragmatic neocons? Or is a pragmatic neocon an oxy-moron?

[laserbob]

Well, for the life of me, I can't understand why guys like Elliot Abrams who had his fingers
deep into Iran Contra weren't drummed out of govt. way back in the 80's?! They just
seem to move from admin to admin, like ghosts that only ever appear when things have
gone very bad. Same for General Poindexter, couldn't believe that someone had the
nerve to put him charge of that TIA program after all of the lies and subterfuge, is this
really the best guy to put in charge of some of our most secret surveillance programs?
Well, I'm back here in Canada, and the weathers fine, but you folks are starting to
scare the bejeebuzz out of us..

d.

[eyesopenwide]

Here's an interesting read that provides some answers to how these people have infiltrated all aspects of our government. It was, for example, Sen. Prescott Bush that was instrumental in creating the OSS, which later became known as the CIA. George Sr. was involved with the CIA probably from the early 1950s and then went on to become the director of the CIA. And that's just the CIA. This was written prior to George Sr.'s presidential defeat by Clinton.

"George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography"
http://www.tarpley.net/bushb.htm#Table

[eyesopenwide]

Excerpt from above-referenced link:

"The best way to attain a top cabinet post was to belong to a family that had been allied with the Bush-Walker clan over a period of at least half a century, and to have served as a functionary or fund-raiser for the Bush campaign. This applied to Secretary of State James Baker III, Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas Brady, Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher, and Bush's White House counsel and top political adviser, C. Boyden Gray."

"A second royal road to high office was to have been an officer of Kissinger Associates, the international consulting firm set up by Bush's lifelong patron, Henry Kissinger. In this category we find Gen. Brent Scowcroft, the former chief of the Kiss Ass Washington office, and Lawrence Eagleburger, the dissipated wreck who was named to the number two post in the State Department, Undersecretary of State. Eagleburger had been the president of Kissinger Associates. The ambassadorial (or proconsul) list was also rife with Kissingerian pedigrees: a prominent one was John Negroponte, Bush's ambassador to Mexico."

Note: Henry Kissinger is a wanted war criminal outside the US.

[munimula]

I've been confused about something for a while now. Why don't we ever hear the words "NEO-CON's" uttered by any of the Democratic candidates? Why is there never a clear critique from the Democrats about the awful philosophies of these neo-con's and how terribly they have served us? Does it have something to do with the toxic third-rail of right wing Israeli neo-con's and their US counterparts? Or is it something else entirely? What gives???

[biwee]

While not all NeoCons are Israel First Zionists, the ones who pushed the US into the unnecessary war of choice in Iraq are. This nation is doomed. It died in 1967 when the attack on the USS liberty went UNPUNSIHED.

[jollyelle]

I agree, until our governmental representatives, at all levels, can freely, without risk of losing their careers discuss our foreign policy with Israel, our national security will be in jeopardy. We, as Citizens, should also be able to ??? our policies with Israel, its' ties to the weapons industry and the many inhumane practices that have become commonplace. AIPAC is far too influential and has waged war with anyone questioning the unconditional support. J-Street sounds promising. Not only should United States citizens realize just how oppressive the Israeli Govt is to the Palestinians, I personally, believe that most Jewish people are not informed. Our country has long held a totally pro-Israel bias and as other bloggers have mentioned, Jewish people have been raised to remember the victimhood of their past. Today, it is hard to find sympathy when the victims have become the victimizer­s......pla­in and simple, it is wrong. They have imprisoned the Palestinians, taken away hope, unilaterally maintain water rights and withhold medical services. They are in violation of International Law and it angers the entire region.
I feel the candidates won't ever speak about Neocons because it is such a loaded subject. It shouldn't be but it is.......Answer me this though, what exactly does a dual citizenship Israel/America entail????
Should it cause concern of any kind that so many people in powerful security positions maintain dual citizenship?? i.e. Chertoff, Mukasey etc....