Remember the 'Liberal Hawks' Who Got Us into the Iraq Disaster? They've Joined the Neocons on Iran

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Ali Gharib

Remember the 'Liberal Hawks' Who Got Us into the Iraq Disaster? Now They've Joined the Neocons to Support an Iran Attack
Nobody's learned their lesson it seems.

August 3, 2010 |


This column originally appeared on the Lobelog.

Despite some questionable choices of scholars — like neocons Elliott Abrams and Max Boot — the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an enduring institution in Washington foreign policy circles. The New York- and Washington-based think tank has long been seen as representing mainstream, establishment dialogue matters of U.S. relations with the rest of the world.

But the close contact, and cross-pollination of ideas between the CFR and the powers-that-be is troubling in light of the CFR’s increasingly hawkish direction — especially on Iran. Just like during the run-up to the Iraq war, liberals and realists at the Council seem to be abandoning their traditional allies and sidling up to neoconservatives and their view of the U.S.’s fraught relationship with the Islamic Republic. And just like the run-up to Iraq, they are getting their opinions uncritically published in mainstream outlets that are widely read in Washington.

This week, we have yet another pair of ostensible liberals, CFR fellows Ray Takeyh and former Clinton NSC aide Steve Simon, using rather alarmist language to ask if President Barack Obama would strike Iran if faced with the as-yet-hypothetical scenario of Iran getting close to acquiring nuclear weapons. In the Sunday opinion section of the Washington Post, they list some of the top factors the administration would need to consider should it choose to bomb Iranian nuclear sites, including international outrage, domestic public support, cooperation of Arab Gulf states (the likely staging grounds would also need protection after a bombing run), whether to warn Iran, and “make sure a confrontation (does) not escalate out of control.” ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/world/147730/remember_the_%27liberal_hawks%27_who_got_us_into_the_iraq_disaster_now_they%27ve_joined_the_neocons_to_support_an_iran_attack/

[mmonk]

1. I never knew they were apart.

[texastoast]

2. So who is lining their campaign pockets?

Could it be the organisms in the military industrial complex?

[snot]

3. Somebody's unreccing this.

[MisterP]

4. these were the same "liberal"/bourgeois-liberal clods who whipped up the Cold War,

purged the left, overthrew Mossadeq and Arbenz, were the Best and Brightest in Vietnam and Cuba, attacked detente, reformism, and investigative journalism, and ushered in the near-genocidal New Cold War of 1978-91 and the neoliberal/think-tank world order we've been stuck in since 1978

[texastoast]

5. Kick n/t