What is a neo-con?

[sutz12]

I did this on another board after many requests by conservative types who seem to think it's a silly term and that they don't know what it means. I thought it might be fun here, not to mention I think I'd get quite a few more ideas into the definition.

* * * * * * * * *

1. A neo-con is a conservative that has been hit over the head with a Bible too many times. (Although one could argue that the current neo-cons have been manipulating the religious right for votes without really advancing their agenda.) Neo-cons use religion and 'religious' issues as offensive political weapons, rather than as shields or supports.

2. A neo-con thinks that political commentary peaked with the publishing of Machiavelli's The Prince and that economics starts and ends with Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations.

3. A neo-con thinks that our best foreign policy in the 21st Century should consist of a blend of 18th century mercantilism, 19th century colonialism, and 'protection' of 20th century fuel resources.

4. A neo-con thinks that we can bomb a counry, occupy it, and force an unfamiliar life style and political system on them, and get annoyed when they don't thank us for it.

5. A neo-con thinks that talking to people we disagree with is a sign of weakness, and that bullying people who might actually like us if we treated them decently is a sign of strength.

6. A neo-con thinks that a false sense of security is more important than real Constitutional rights.

7. A neo-con is all show and no go. He can get elected apparently (at least until 2006), but governs like crap.

8. A neo-con is typically a chickenhawk who thinks that the military option is the first and most important one, as long as he and his don't have to serve and/or sacrifice, and as long as big business makes a profit.

9. A neo-con knows he is right, and will never be confused by facts.

10. A neo-con believes that authoritarian government is best, and that democracy is an annoyance. He is at best a republican (small r there, not political party big R, who are or used to be more 'old school' conseratives) and at worst an imperialist. A neo-con will tend to advocate a strong executive branch, a weak legislative branch, and a cooperative (one might say subserviant) judicial branch.

Any more?

[rumpel]

1. here is the source

http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm

[Stephanie]

2. Only 4, 8 & 9 are correct

Neo-con correctly used refers to the small cabal from PNAC, AEI and the Weekly Standard who brought you this Iraq War. They were trained at Univ. of Chicago, subscribe to Leo Strauss, and advocate a domino theory in the Middle East. I think your definition is overbroad.

[Stephanie]

3. More info here >

Amazningly, this info is now HISTORY >

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=110&topic_id=80

[mrreowwr_kittty]

4. But doesn't mercantilism conflict with Adam Smith?

I thought laissez-faire was a rejection of it. Not that I'm disagreeing with your assessment of the neo-cons. Just pointing out yet another inconsistency in their doctrine.

[MADem]

5. Well, they're a lot like dog turds, really

--They stink.

-Once you step in their horrible mess it's difficult to clean up.

-You don't want them in your home.

-You certainly don't want them running the country.

-They're best flushed down the crapper.

[Unbowed]

6. Hmmm...

Neo-cons don't really exist. There are wing nuts who call themselves neo-cons, but there is nothing new or conservative about them. Self-centered, smug, hypocritical assholes have been around for a long time.

[baldguy]

7. The "truth" of a statement is directly proportional to the amount of money in support of it.

And inversely proportional to the number of empirical facts refuting it.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

8. Good post. I throw that term around all the time...

...without ever stopping to think about what a Neocon is.

11. A Neocon is a small minded, petty, self absorbed, mean spirited, materialistic, deeply insecure, little person who feels threatened by any and all unlike him/herself. The Neocon deals with these unjustified feelings by continually seeking ways to diminish, disable, and/or destroy these threats.

[Australian]

9. Neoconservative

Necoconservatives reject the foundations of free speech, liberty and democracy which the United States was based on. These three principles are a direct threat to the neoconservative business interests.

Although the neoconservative business model probably dates back to the 1920s, I know preparations were in full swing by 1936 when Henry Ford created his Ford Foundation, John Rockefeller II was making palns to create a Islamic military to colonize South East Asia for "easy access to the wealth of Asia", and the New York public were falling in love with the golden Prometheus statue. At the end of the Second World War while Ford flew members of the Javanese elite to be indoctrinated on how to build a successful Indonesian colonial power for Exxon, Freeport, Newmont, Bechtel, etc.; while Washington was advised the best thing was to issue orders not to arrest the Axis leader Sukarno or his jihad militia troops.

Meanwhile the world community was busy creating the United Nations, and Rockefeller thought it was a good idea to throw a few million dollars at it to encourage the creation of the Indonesian military regime. Although the Netherlands eventually convinced the UN to support a 'federated' government of sixteen equal states called the United States of Indonesia, this was easily delt with as Sukarno's forces crushed the USI and declared the region to be part of his Republic of Indonesia instead. This is when the neoconservative business model went off the track for fifteen years.

Sukarno proved to be as evil and corrupt as the neoconservative corporations were, and he wouldn't sign the contracts they wanted. Thankfully the neoconservatives already had a new ace up their sleves, the new CIA agency.

The people working at the CIA were good people wanting to help their nation. The concept was good, an Agency which would ensure the Departments (DoS, DoD, DoJ) had all the information they needed to help the United States avoid another Pearl Harbour and govern itself wisely. The trouble was that it would have REPORTED the overseas activities of all the neoconservative companies trying to build new colonies to harvest. They had to stop the CIA from ever doing its basic job; but Truman had already smiled upon the concept so it was impossible to prevent the Agency from being created.

Instead, the neoconservatives convinced the US Congress that they should 'help' the new Agency by increasing its powers and scope, allow it to implement its own foreign policy. The CIA Act meant the CIA was effectively forbidden to share its information with the US government Departments and would instead implement a foreign policy which would be designed by the Ford Foundation and later the Rand Corporation.

The 1953 Operation Ajax for the oil companies got rid of a 'left' wing government and installed a hated Monarch the British had created in the 1920s; for the next twenty years Iran suffered a brutal denial of rights and eventually only a more brutal Islamic cleric was able to rally the people to create an Islamic State. That is blow-back example #1.

What about the original master plan? The Ford Foundation discovered the Indonesian Generals were even more corrupt than Sukarno, the Generals would be happy to kill millions of 'Indonesians' if it made a profit; so from 1957 onwards the CIA and US government began funding the Indonesian military INSTEAD of the government. General Suharto tookover during 1965/66, the "Year of Living Dangerously", killing a half million of his own Javanese countrymen because they were potential political leaders..

The US corporations got their prizes, cheap sweatshop factories to make clothes cheaper than the US campnaies could; a military that gave Exxon acces to Aceh's oil and sold a 30 year mine license to Rockefeller's Freeport Sulphur company in 1967 two years before Indonesia conducted a fake ceremony to claim it had sovereignty of the country they had alread sold a mining license for.

Indonesia's largest single 'tax-payer' is the billion dollar Freeport McMoran company still mining West papua's gold & copper. A mine built by Bechtel. Now, can you guess who were George Bush's major contributors ???

So in a few words, Neoconservatives are:
pro-colonization,
anti-free speech anti-democracy anti-freedom,
pro-sweatshop factories,
and pro re-shaping the world's governments to their fiscal needs.

The results of which I think you are all now well aware of.