Neocons Shaken, But Not Deterred

[laststeamtrain]

Neocons Shaken, But Not Deterred

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jan 24 (IPS) - Almost exactly five years after it reached its zenith with the invasion of Iraq, the influence of neo-conservatives has waned sharply in Washington, as their nemeses, the "realists" in the national security bureaucracy, have increasingly asserted control over U.S. foreign policy.
While battered, however, neo-conservatives have not yet been forced from the field. And while their hopes that President George W. Bush would "take out" Iran's nuclear programme before leaving office appear to have diminished substantially, their hawkish voice is still heard loud and clear both in the White House -- courtesy of Vice President Dick Cheney's office and Deputy National Security adviser Elliott Abrams -- and in this year's Republican presidential race, where neo-conservative favourites include former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. John McCain, and, until earlier this week, Fred Thompson.

Indeed, as pointed out in Jacob Heilbrunn's new book "They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons" (Doubleday), the neocons, despite the fiasco in Iraq, are already trying to detach themselves from both Bush and the Mesopotamian adventure they so avidly championed and entrench themselves ever more deeply into institutional Washington.

"Whether it's the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies or the National Endowment for Democracy, the Weekly Standard or the New York Sun, the neoconservatives are battle-hardened fighters who have created a permanent base for themselves. They will not disappear," according to Heilbrunn, a former neo-conservative himself and senior editor at the Nixon Centre's The National Interest journal.

Heilbrunn's much-anticipated book, which coincides with the publication of a not entirely unsympathetic biography entitled "Prince of Darkness" of the movement's most influential hard-liner, Richard Perle, affirms a number of central truths about neo-conservatism that are generally ignored or avoided in mainstream discussion of what he correctly calls a "mind-set" rather than an "ideology."

<more>

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40917

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. 'The "realists" in the national security bureaucracy...'

Trying to wrap my head around that one.

[annabanana]

2. They will require a stake through the heart. .

(If you can find it)

[BobTheSubgenius]

3. I disagree with one of the initial premises.

Well....I guess quibble is a better word. I believe their nemeses aren't the "realists"...but actual reality.

You have to be as deranged as Kristol or as dumb as a....well...freeper to find any meat still on the bones of neocon ME "policy".

[tom_paine]

4. Nazis, Bushies and other authoritarians NEVER give up. They are zealots.

It is what Jefferson meants when he said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

Of course, try and find 5 people who even know that Jefferson said that, let alone what it means.