|
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Liberals support war
I've been asserting, for some time, that support for U.S. military intervention in foreign countries is typically a left-wing, Democratic, and statist viewpoint. I just saw the current Google News front page, at which the 2nd one of their "Top Stories" featured there is a certain Washington Post editorial:
'Realism' and Darfur
Washington Post - 50 minutes ago
THERE HAVE always been beggars outside palaces, and comfortable people have always preserved their capacity for happiness by screening out other people's pain. But this self-protective instinct seems particularly powerful at the moment, as genocide ...
Powell implores Sudan to abide by UN resolution Dallas Morning News (subscription)
Sudan govt. to accept UN resolution on Darfur crisis: ambassador EastDay.com
New York Times - ABC News - Sydney Morning Herald - Guardian - and 1132 related ยป
That WaPo editorial [rather disapprovingly] summarizes the viewpoint of foreign policy realism, which many conservatives believe in (though this has been less true within the past couple of years, since a Republican administration has been opposing it [though that may be changing... Let's hope...]). The Washington Post is a liberal newspaper, and in accordance with its leftist viewpoint, it seems to be advocating a U.S. military intervention in Sudan, on humanitarian grounds. The Post also supported the Iraq war, probably also in accordance with the viewpoint of liberal internationalism.
That editorial implies the decreased importance of national sovereignty that is promoted when this type of liberal interventionism occurs. That is one reason why most conservatives and Republicans and libertarians opposed the interventionist foreign policy of the Clinton/Gore/Albright administration, and why many of us have continued to oppose it (or have been raising strong doubts and serious questions about it) during this administration. Democrats and liberals largely supported this type of foreign policy during the 1990's, but more of them oppose it now. This is what oftentimes happens in politics.
Still, there are some principled Democrats and liberals who supported the Iraq war, just as they have supported warfare and military intervention in the past.
For those who think that the Democrats will provide opposition to agressive warfare and military intervention, they need to better understand political philosophy, and the different schools of geopolitical thought. Democrats and liberals generally support warfare and military intervention more than most conservatives and Republicans do...
I'm going to have to leave this entry truncated for now... I have a 6:00 AM flight tomorrow morning - For the first time ever, I'm attending the annual National Conservative Student Conference, sponsored by Young America's Foundation. It should be a week of enrichment, enjoyment, and education.
With respect to the subject of this entry, check out the latest updates in the top post at my ' Antiwar Conservative' blog. If the Democrats are allowed to take the White House, we could have more warmongering and interventionism than we would if Bush were re-elected.
http://warconservative.blogspot.com
http://uis.blogspot.com/#107455604648659084
Updates:
Here are some related readings, some of which are also found in that in-depth blog entry listed right above:
- Liberals and Democrats should be supporting our policy in Iraq
- Conservatives should not be supporting our policy in Iraq
- Conservatives should not be supporting a war with Iraq
- This is a left-wing conflict and Conservatives should not support it
- Against liberal interventionism
- In favor of liberal interventionism
- A Liberal War: What the Left won't see
- Moral imperative: Any self-respecting liberal would support the Iraq war
- Liberals should support the Iraq war... Many already do
- This war is justified only on liberal grounds
- Where are all the liberal humanitarian interventionists now?
- Antiwar movement inconsistent with liberal values
-----> UPDATE (5/22/10): It's been years, but I thought I should add this very-pertinent and detailed piece, from The New Republic (one of several left-of-center organizations that strongly supported the Iraq war; others include the Progressive Policy Institute and Social Democrats USA).
AN ARGUMENT FOR A NEW LIBERALISM - A Fighting Faith, Peter Beinart, Dec. 2, 2004
Hat tip: Sarah Wildman's recent column on Beinart
posted by Aakash at 10:24 PM
Friday, July 30, 2004
Off to the conference... YAF.orgI'm juggling a lot of things right now... and I have a lot to do before I leave the day after tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some Amazon.com items that I hope you'll consider buying.
(Note: The real reason I hope that you'll purchase these items - via the links below - is because I just became an Amazon.com 'Associate'... One of the things that I need to do right now is to find a good job, but for the meantime, any way to get some extra money would be useful. I knew that some people are able to do that from their blogs, and thanks to Elise, I have some ideas about how to do so. I just joined Amazon.com's 'Associate' program, so if you purchase the items below by following these links, I am supposed to get a little 'compensation' for that.)
-------- --------
posted by Aakash at 9:32 PM
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Note (7/27/04): I've been very busy, and somewhat tired, these past few days - I'll let you know what's been happening soon. I've made several amendments to this and other entries... On the subject of this post, I just found Josh's entry that it very pertinent. From there, I see that, despite our side not winning this game, my team was well-represented in it.
Oops... I just realized that that post was from last year. I hope that Josh's hopes for this year come true, unlike those from the last. And now, it looks like they may indeed, as even those who doubted it have acknowledged.
------------ Original Entry ------------
Oh yeah...
I didn't even realize it - The All-Star Game is tonight... It's just about to start - at the Astros' Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas ( the park once famously known as " Enron Field" [ Oops!] and then as " Astros Field").
I hope the NL wins.
Updates:
Darn, they didn't... And it really sucks for Roger Clemens.
Here are some good baseball-related blogs:
Baseball Crank
Baseball Musings
Baseball Junkie
Baseball Blogs
Baseball News Blog
Baseball Primer
Baseball Boys
Boy of Summer
Only Baseball Matters
Rich's Weekend Baseball Beat
Dick Allen's Baseball Blog
Jeremy Heit's Blog
The Southpaw
Clark & Addison Chronicle
I included that last one because it belongs to our friend Jason Steffens (of ' Antioch Road')...
Via the Baseball News Blog, I find that there are indeed blogs for my team:
Redbird Nation
Get Up, Baby!
Royalties and Cardinalate
(Unfortunately, I don't think I've ever been to any of those Cardinals weblogs. If there are any other St. Louis Cardinals blogs out there, drop me a line, and I will probably list it above.)
Update (7/25/04): I should mention here the only sports-oriented weblog that blogrolls this one - Off Wing Opinion by Eric McErlain. I think that Mr. McErlain is a conservative who used to blog about politics as well, but now dedicates his weblog to sports.
He is taking a break from blogging until August 9th, but he has a few guest bloggers at his site, including Prof. Jeff Cooper, who recently turned the big 4-0 (a few days after I turned the big 2-3).
Update (7/24/04): I haven't been following the season this year (last year, I was in Josh's fantasy baseball league), but maybe I should have been. I need to point out something that I also remember gloating about my sophomore year of high school.
* FIRST PLACE! *
posted by Aakash at 7:36 PM
Saturday, July 10, 2004
Right now, TNT is showing The Negotiator, and the star character was talking about the issue of lying, and how to tell if someone is doing so.
The matter of lies, deceptions, and cover-ups by people in positions of power is a very serious issue, one that is being greatly discussed and debated in the public arena - especially with regard to the federal government. The same was true during the last presidential administration, and in ones before that as well.
On Antiwar Films...
The entry right below is on loony leftist Michael Moore's latest controversial "documentary" film, Fahrenheit 9/11. In that entry, I referred to the pertinent posting that I just did on my " Antiwar Conservative" blog. One thing that I pointed out there was my suggestions for some anti-war films that are actually good. I also posted this the other day on Young America's Foundation's Club 100 message board:
...For a good anti-war movie, I'd suggest Wag the Dog, Three Kings, and even Outbreak (that last one isn't exactly anti-war, but possibly pertains to some of the issues facing our leadership, and our country, today).
When I posted that at the YAF message board, I had known that TNT was planning on showing ' Three Kings'; it was aired last night. Coincidentally, I was flipping channels this afternoon and found that ' Outbreak' was being shown on that same station.
Both of those movies are excellent, and both will be shown again tomorrow - Sunday, July 11th - on TNT.
Update (10:25 PM): Right now, TNT is showing 'A Few Good Men,' the famous military courtroom drama. I had never seen the beginning of that movie before, so I'm finding it intriguing. (Before this, they showed a film called 'GI Jane,' which I've also seen part of before... I didn't like that one, though, and I didn't watch it today.) Anyway, this must be military movie weekend, or something, on that station... I would definitely recommend tuning in for 'Three Kings' and 'Outbreak' tomorrow.
------- -------
posted by Aakash at 5:36 PM
That Fahrenheit Flick...
I just added an update to the top post of my " Antiwar Conservative" weblog... That blog was initially intended to serve as an archive of my older (pre-March 2003) entries from this blog that relate to the issues of war and foreign policy, but I have lately started updating the top post there, and the sidebar, with some recent news and opinion pieces.
The latest update I added was about Michael Moore's [ latest articles] new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11 [ latest articles].
On my birthday (June 26th), some of my family members went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 at the local theater. I was thinking of going, but ended up not doing so.
My thoughts about Moore and the anti-war left were just posted over there. Moore is a left-wing propagandist, and his works are known for being marked by lies and distortions. The same might be true for this film.
For some thoughts on Moore's latest propaganda film from a conservative/libertarian anti-war perspective, here is a blog entry by Republican anti-war activist Eric Garris, and here is an article by former Republican congressional nominee Justin Raimondo.
Update (8/26/04): Via Pieter's new(er) blog, which I just went to for the first time, I see that he also saw the Garris and Raimondo anti-war, anti-Moore articles... However, Pieter also links to our friend Jon Luker's review of the film (Jon saw it with fellow anti-war conservative Michael Schweppe - they were apparently amidst a sea of liberals and Democrats... Well, I guess that can be expected...).
Update (7/14/04): I just discovered the blog of J.H. Huebert, who seems to be a young libertarian, who has some thoughts on the film, and links to an article of his about it. I recently came across another article on the movie - by Jonathan David Morris, a great conservative writer. Mr. Huebert's blog is going onto the blogroll here, or perhaps over there, and Mr. Morris' has been up - both here and there - for awhile. I strongly suggest you ' Read JDM' - both at his site, and at the great ' Radical Cowboys' weblog, where he posts.
Note: As one might expect, Tom Schneider's JerseyGOP.com site stopped publishing Mr. Morris' columns awhile ago... their archive listing for him has a "NEW!" label on it for his latest column on their site - a column about the deaths of Uday and Qusay "last week"...
Many other sites publish his great pieces, though. Good for them.
Now Read JDM!
posted by Aakash at 5:13 PM
|
