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Intellectual Conservative PoliticsIowa.com Weekly Weblog No Runny Eggs
This is the personal weblog of Aakash Raut, established Sept. 2002. It will cover current affairs, worldwide & national topics, local & university events, and provide insight and commentary on contemporary issues and the news from his perspective. Enjoy! --------------- ARCHIVES Sept 2002 - Now -------------
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Friday, October 27, 2006
Couldn't think of the right words for this, anyway... Though many have forgotten (probably because I haven't been paying attention for awhile... And this especially happens during Election Years it seems, even if the Cardinals are in the post-season, because all these things coincide, especially when I'm already head-deep in campaigns and elections) - I am a strong Cardinals fan. I was just telling Jeff though (last night, and as we are here at his place, watching the game... it's now the 8th inning!), that I'm wondering why I'm not that excited. I mean, while I'm too young to have remembered 1985, I do remember 1996, when we fumbled a 3-1 lead [not in the World Series, but in the pennant race] to the Braves. We soooo deserved to win more than they. So I should be jumping out of my seat (as the other 20 or people here are... But for some reason, I'm not. (Though I did break into applause, slightly before the rest in fact, at that last RBI.) While many have forgotten that I'm a Cardinals fan, I was glad that Matt Wallace (who is back for tonight!) has not, when I spoke to him, after CSF. And if I do a Google search, I think that the Blogosphere may also still remember (though it's frustrating how much, from back then, is no longer up). Let's see... Ugh! It's worse than I thought. [Ask.com is better, though... Perhaps I should start using that site more. Just as I remember 1996, I remember two years ago, when we won the pennant (yes!!), but then somehow got swept, straight out. My blog remembers too. Well, I think it may be the last inning now. It's time to go back into the living room. Go Cardinals!! Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Churning out more bloggage on this topic, even as I have a million 'more important' things to get done... The Antiwar Case for a Republican Congress It is currently 3:35 AM, and I am about four weeks behind in my Graduate POS course (not to mention stuff piled up from before). I've been planning, for awhile, to turn this blog over to James (and possibly a couple others), and I think I finally will for awhile, but I need to get a few particular entries churned out first. In my posts below, I point out that: 1) In the run-up to the Iraq War, there were divisions, within both the Right and the Left, about whether to support the war. The anti-war Right has been emphasized by me (as many in the Blogosphere have been aware of), from 2002 until the present, in blog entries, and in comment posts at various sites. The pro-war Left has been discussed by me in several entries as well, such as the ones posted here from last month, and in prior years as well. 2) In the present time, many people (both on the Left and on the Right) who previously supported the Iraq war, are turning away from it. There are divisions, within BOTH the Democrat and Republican Parties, about what course of action to take, with regard to the present Iraq situation. 3) Elected officials tend to be more opposed to policies (especially openly) if the administration proposing, implementing, and defending them is of the opposite party. Meanwhile, the leaders of the executive administration's same party are more likely to defend those policies, even if they don't personally agree with them, or have strong doubts. [ Note: I was quoted in Time Magazine regarding this, which I call the "Party Reversal Phenomenon." But it is really an obvious fact of political and psychological reality, based on human nature, and the sharply partisan nature of our contemporary political system. ] 4) The Iraq War is based upon principles contrary to conservatism, and is a break from the Republican traditions of limited government and sovereignty, which were more prevalent within our party when Bill Clinton was president. This war is rooted in a neoconservative and liberal internationalist vision, which is fundamentally leftist in nature. 5) Due to the coming election, Democrats (who previously acknowledged - and even hailed - the divisions within their ranks, on the issue of Iraq, and whose anti-war members touted the anti-war leaders within our Party), may seek to cast this debate as Republican vs. Democrat (something that I was previously resisting, from my fellow Republicans). The Democrats may try to do this now, more than ever before, due to the possibility that they will be able to capture the U.S. Congress in November. 6) Misinformed/dishonest Republicans who are lockstep defenders of the Iraq war, and of the Bush administration's interventionist foreign policy, are playing into the hands of the Democrats, by creating a strong link between conservatives/Republicans and the failed foreign policy of the Bush administration (policies that have their philosophical and historic roots in liberal, Democrat traditions), thereby also pushing this inaccurate reductionist frame, and thereby aiding the Democrats, since said policies are now more unpopular than ever. 7) The Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have been willing to stand up to the Bush administration's liberal and neoconservative policies, on a variety of foreign and domestic policy issues, and if the Democrats take control of the House, those who would be put in power include liberals who support statist, pro-war policies. In this entry, I am going to make the case that allowing the Democrats to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives (and perhaps the U.S. Senate as well) will actually weaken the anti-war cause, and could lead to even greater congressional support for warfare and military intervention. If it's war you want, vote Democrat The antiwar case for a Republican Congress Due to time constraints, I am not going to be able to cover these points extremely in-depth, but I have somewhat done so, during the past few years. Let's examine some issues, one-by-one: - Democrat support for war. I have pointed out, numerous times before, that Democrats and liberals support warfare and military interventionism more often than conservatives and Republicans do. This entry from January 2004 examines this topic in-depth, in relation to the current Iraq war. The fact that a Republican is in the White House is a major factor why there were a large number of conservatives and Republicans who supported the current Iraq war from the start (though a significant number of us opposed it), and why there weren't even more Democrats and liberals who supported it (though a large number did). The situation was reversed, when Bill Clinton was in office. Prior to the 2004 presidential election, I pointed out that if John Kerry was elected, we may have more warfare and military interventionism that if President Bush were to be re-elected. Others were thinking along the same lines: - If it's war you want, vote Kerry: The Democratic contender is more hawkish than Bush, and may appeal to the neocons this November, April 10, 2004 - On Iraq, President Bush followed Senator Kerry's instructions, March 16, 2004 - The Democrats aren't the anti-war alternative in 2004 - Do we want a left-wing war criminal as President? - The Progressive Peacenik Myth: Contrary to the conventional wisdom, American imperialism is, at its roots, a left-wing disorder rather than a conservative impulse Donald Devine, the editor of Conservative Battleline (who has been, along with fellow ACU leader David Keene, a strong critic of the neoconservative foreign policy - much to the angst of National Review and others), endorsed President Bush for re-election, in the pre-election issue of Conservative Battleine, calling him "The Peace Candidate." While that publication had previously opined that the 2004 presidential election wouldn't make much difference (with Dr. Devine being so repulsed by the Bush administration's policies, that he refused to shake hands with the President, when the ACU hosted him!), it ultimately came to the conclusion that George W. Bush would be significantly better, the most major reason being that he would be likely to withdraw from Iraq before John Kerry would. Neocon leftist Andrew Sullivan - a strong supporter of the Iraq war - may have reached the same conclusion, as he endorsed John Kerry for President (and no, it wasn't just because of gay marriage and other social issues), fulfilling the conclusions of John Laughland, in the first article mentioned above.   Before the Iraq war began, I noticed that the last unsuccessful Vice-Presidential nominee of the Democrat Party (yes, he is a staunch liberal) strongly supported the Iraq war (along with other left-wingers), while the last unsuccessful Vice-Presidential nominee of the Republican Party opposed this war.And of course, many of the principle leaders in the previous administration [Clinton] supported this war, and laid the groundwork for it (as Hillary herself pointed out), while the leaders of the previous Republican administration [Bush 41] opposed this war. I am not going to go into this more in-depth right now, because I have covered the PRO-WAR LEFT in my more-recent entries [here, here, and here], and in 2004 [here and here]. And the antiwar Right has been covered by me, in too many blog entries and comment posts to count, something that I became known for in the Blogosphere, before the Iraq war even began. The main purpose of this entry however, is to explain why it would be best, for those of us who are against warfare and interventionism, for the Republicans to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Let us examine what a Democrat U.S. House would look like. "America Weakly..." or America WAR-ly?? Speaker of the House: Nancy Pelosi As noted in my last entry, it was just ten years ago that the Republican nominee for Congress, against Ms. Pelosi, was none other than Justin Raimondo (the editorial director of Antiwar.com, which had been founded the previous year, to oppose the pro-war policies of the Clinton administration). Justin's campaign site, from his run against Ms. Pelosi, is still up. Check it out, at: www.antiwar.com/raimondo As you can see there, Justin ran against Ms. Pelosi on an anti-war, pro-liberty platform. Because a Democrat was in the White House, Ms. Pelosi was pro-war. (Also see National Review's Rich Lowry: "Nancy the Warrior") But even with Bush as President, Ms. Pelosi has not, despite what is being said by Republicans who should know better, been strongly anti-war. Keeping troops in a foreign operation indefinitely, with no exit strategy, no timetable for withdrawal, on open-ended "peacekeeping missions," and for the purposes of nation-building, and imposing "democracy" overseas through statist means, increased spending, and governmental management... Those are the principles of LIBERAL INTERNATIONALISM. Democrats supported this, as part of the "Clinton Doctrine," not too long ago, while most Republicans and conservatives (though not the neocons) opposed it. George W. Bush campaigned against Al Gore and Bill Clinton on this very issue, was called an "isolationist" for his traditionalist positioning. In 2004, and even just last year, the liberal/Democrat critics of President Bush's foreign policy (along with the neocons such as Bill Kristol) proposed increasing the size of our army and advocated SENDING MORE TROOPS to Iraq. The Weekly Standard praised John Kerry for his position on this, and indicated their willingness to ally with the liberal internationalists, against true-blue conservatives. When John Murtha proposed a bill to withdraw our troops from Iraq, Nancy Pelosi (Note: Congressman John Murtha is actually one of the MOST CONSERVATIVE Democrats in the United States Congress.) In San Francisco, both liberals and conservatives (the few who are there), recognize that their Congresswoman is not truly anti-war. Speaking of San Francisco Congress members, the Hon. Tom Lantos (D-CA) has been serving in the U.S. House of Representatives since he was elected in 1980. He is currently the top Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, which is chaired by the very-distinguished U.S. Congressman Henry Hyde (R-IL). If the Dems win the U.S. House, Lantos is poised to become the Chairman of this important committee. Chairman, House International Relations Committee: Tom Lantos Out of all the people in the United States Congress, Tom Lantos is perhaps the most pro-war. The Congressman "has supported every war that's been proposed since he entered office" [26 years ago], from Grenada to the current war against Iraq. The current (Republican) Chairman of the House International Relations Committee however, Congressman Henry Hyde, was not a strong supporter of the Iraq war. Hyde initially opposed this war (along with other Republicans) and while he may have officially given his backing to the effort, before it began, he has been among those GOP leaders critical of the Bush administration's war policy, and the "doctrine" behind it. When the Iraq war resolution was being debated, in the fall of 2002, Hyde tried to scale it back. More recently, it was reported that Chairman Hyde, along with his Republican counterpart in the U.S. Senate - Chairman Dick Lugar (R-IN) - were planning to keep any anti-Iran proposal bottled up in committee (something which got them attacked by the neocons). Note: And House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi "signed on to" said legislation!! [The Hill] Earlier this year, Hyde gave a speech (which, as usual, was not covered by the media... which continues to fail in coverage of anti-war conservatives and Republicans) denouncing the hawkish and extremely-unrealistic philosophies of the neoconservatives - and liberal internationalists - whose twisted ideological vision was what got us into this mess in the first place. "Lashing our interests to the indiscriminate promotion of democracy is a tempting but unwarranted strategy, more a leap of faith than a sober calculation. There are other negative consequences as well. A broad and energetic promotion of democracy in other countries that will not enjoy our long-term and guiding presence may equate not to peace and stability but to revolution." The Perils of the Golden Theory, Feb. 16, 2006 [Transcript] [audio] [corresponding OP-ED] This speech was praised by other conservative commentators, who have joined us in taking on the neocon/neoliberal trend that has engulfed our Party, and the Bush administration, during the past four years. Henry Hyde is right - again, Terence Jeffrey [ original 2001 piece ] Hyde's Warning, James M. Wall, The Christian Century Henry Hyde Speaks Truth to Power, Diane Alden Imperial overreach is accelerating the global decline of America, Martin Jacques, London Guardian Yes, Congressman Hyde is retiring this time around. However, other Republicans on the House International Relations Committee have also been speaking out against the Iraq war, and against this neoliberal geopolitical philosophy. As I pointed out more than a year ago, half of the Republicans on that Committee voted in favor of an intra-Committee resolution, from true-blue conservative Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC), to get President Bush to develop an exit strategy on Iraq. If the Democrats take over the U.S. House, a moderately anti-war Republican Chairman of the International Relations Committee will be replaced by an extreme war hawk. Note: This entry is still in progress. It was conceived and begun, prior to the Election, but due to how incredibly busy so many of us have been (and continue to be, even after that day has passed), I have not been able to publish it so far. It is being first published tonight, Tuesday, Nov. 21st. I will finish the rest of this piece later (below), and perhaps re-publish it in article form. Weldon - Bayh debate Hostettler Darfur Updates Chairman, House Armed Services Committee: Ike Skelton (D-MO) Congressman Skelton supported Bill Clinton's illegal war in Kosovo, and while he has now (right before the election!) joined Lantos and the other House Democrats in calling for a reversal of plans in Iraq, he supported the Iraq war. He is a "Truman Democrat" - like the liberal internationalists we've been discussing. Chairman, House Ways and Means Committee: Charlie Rangel (D-NY) Three years ago, Congressman Rangel proposed reinstating the draft. He did this presumably with the belief that a draft would cause fewer people to support warfare and military interventionism. If a Congressman like [the outstanding Republican & longtime antiwar leader] Ron Paul (R-TX) did this, then it would be understandable. But for someone like Charlie Rangel to do so is utterly hypocritical. During the Clinton administration, liberals and Democrats [except the Category #1 ones, like Congressman Kucinich and Congresswoman Lee, and a few principled moderate and conservative ones as well*] supported the hyper-interventionist foreign policies of that administration. Because of the liberal imperialism of the Clinton years, it was conservatives and libertarians who first had the idea (though they didn't necessarily support the plan) that a draft could result in more Americans become anti-intervention. I remember this column, from the 2000 presidential race: The 'D' Word, June 6, 2000 The reason that it is extremely hypocritical for Congressman Rangel to be now making this argument is because partisan leftists like him are Johnny-come-latelys to the anti-war cause. As this article points out, the Congressman joined with his party leadership to support President Clinton's disasterous nation-building program in Somalia, the failed policy in Haiti,** the horrible intervention into the civil war in Bosnia,*** and the illegal war in Kosovo. To be fair, Congressman Rangel did [at least somewhat] critize President Clinton's bombings of Iraq - in early, and then late, 1998. But he - along with most members of the Congressional Black Caucus - were eager to support President Clinton, because he was on the verge of being impeached. Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), who opposed the December airstrikes ("Operation Desert Fox"), even said it was "unpatriotic" for a Republican congressman to accuse President Clinton of using the war to distract from his domestic problems. Another House Democrat (from a neighboring California district)**** boldly stated, "Never underestimate a desperate partisan whose lust for the president's blood will cause him to make statements that will give aid and comfort to the enemy." [ Washington Post ] Sound familiar? Footnotes (12/19/06) I had included asterisks above, but haven't even put the footnotes until now... This shows you how overwhelming things have been - even worse, perhaps than before - something that I've mentioned in my entries above. I still haven't gotten much of my work in, but I don't want to delay adding the footnote references, any more. * U.S. Reps. Ralph Hall (D-TX) and Virgil Goode (D-VA), both of whom opposed the imperialistic policies of the Clinton administration, were conservative Democrats, who later switched to the Republican Party. ** Again in 2004, the Democrats demanded that President Bush send troops - unilaterally, and without any international approval - into Haiti, to keep President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in power. *** The intervention into the Bosnian civil war was once again supported by most Democrats, while being opposed by most Republicans. **** U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) was pro-war during the Clinton administration, and has continued to be hawkish, even with President Bush in office. He supported the Iraq war, and how - he is attacking the Bush administration for not being hawkish enough!! Take a look at Congressman Sherman's official page on "Middle East Issues": http://www.house.gov/sherman/middle_east_issues.shtml I mentioned above how House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar (R-IN) both oppose punative measures against Iran (as does the Bush State Department), which are supported by liberals and Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), as well as neoconservatives like Michael Ledeen, who have attacked the Republican Congressional leadership for not being hawkish enough. In addition to incoming House International Relations Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-CA) [see above, and his article here], fellow California Congressman Brad Sherman seems to be hawkish towards Iran as well, also attacking President Bush, on The Huffington Post: The U.S. Bows Down to Iran -- And Fails to Stop Its Nuclear Program, Sept. 19, 2006 Sunday, October 22, 2006
This is NOT a 'republican' war... This entry is intended as a follow-up to my previous posts on Senator Joe Lieberman, and the geopolitical principles of liberal internationalism... Particularly, the facts that 1) Many liberals supported the Iraq war, in accordance with this leftist philosophy... 2) Senator Lieberman was one of these liberal Democrats... 3) Being a pro-war Democrat/leftist has conned some people (both Democrats and Republicans) into believing that people such as Joe Lieberman, Zell Miller, Tony Blair, Keith Thompson, and Christopher Hitchens are not liberal, or are "moderate" - or even conservative... 4) The Iraq war, and the ongoing occupation of Iraq, are very much inconsistent with conservative and 'republican' traditions, and are more consistent with the liberal, neoliberal, and statist philosophies rooted in a dangerous and un-American geopolitical tradition. With the passage of time, and with the short attention and memory spans that so many people seem to have, and with the ever-worsening situation in Iraq, combined with a steady drop in public support for the war, it is now my fear (which for some reason, I wasn't that concerned about before), that people will forget the fact that, prior to this war, there were significant divides, within both the Right and the Left, on whether to support the war. I was covering the anti-war Right since before the war began, in blog entries and comment posts at various sites. And the pro-war Left is discussed in my last several entries, as well as in previous years. But as time passes, I am afraid that this will be mischaracterized as a Left vs. Right, or Democrat vs. Republican, conflict. Democrats are doing this to help themselves in the election, which, as a Republican, I am really concerned about... While I have very much been a critic of the national GOP leadership, for many years, I think it would be horrible if the Republicans were to lose the U.S. House [where principled conservatives have, for several years now, been taking on the Bush administration, and the neocons, on a variety of issues, such as the North American Union, amnesty for illegal aliens, ethnic pandering, the U.S.A. Patriot Act, and even the Iraq war - on funding issues, and troop withdrawal as well]. And some Republicans and "conservatives" are also making these reductionist mischaracterizations... And in doing so, are both 1) showing their ignorance of geopolitical philosophy, intra-movement cleavages, and [even-recent] history and 2) helping the Democrats, by connecting our party leaders and candidates with the failed policies of interventionism and liberal internationalism, even as it threatens to cost us control of Congress [something that those of us on the anti-war Right WARNED YOU ALL ABOUT, prior to the war], and even as more and more Republican officials break from these beliefs - not to mention those who opposed it from the start. One example of someone who is stupidly doing this is Lars Larson, whose show I managed to catch (perhaps for the first time ever), when driving home after Friday's Annual Dinner for Springfield Right to Life. It made me mad to hear him creating such ignorant and dishonest reductionist frames of what "Republicans" and "Democrats" supposedly propose for Iraq. It is sickening to hear my fellow Republicans talking about "cut and run" and how we need to "stay the course" with no "artificial" timetables for withdrawal... and railing against the Republican "isolationists" and the Democrat "defeatists." Do people like Lars, Roger Hedgecock, Hush Bimbo, and Sean Vanity realize that they are making socialist arguments - which many of them and their talk radio colleagues (as well as most GOP congressmen, including presidential candidate George W. Bush) opposed during the Clinton administration (even when troops were in the field, and our nation was at war)? (Our nation's military leaders and veterans strongly opposed those interventionist policies as well, which became an asset to Mr. Bush in his campaign against Al Gore. Many of those same military heroes opposed the Iraq war, and when President Bush did a 180 on his geopolitical philosophy, some did not support him for re-election [as they had the first time]. One of those prestigious war heroes, a conservative Republican who is perhaps the most distinguished U.S. Navy veteran alive, is now even running for the U.S. Senate, as a Democrat!)  A Refreshing Reminder Anyway, now to the main item I wanted to feature in this entry: Despite the wrongful framing of the Iraq war debate - by both dishonest, opportunistic Democrats as well as ignorant and idealistic Republicans - it was refreshing to see, around the same time that I wrote the entries below, the "Spotlight" article featured on Antiwar.com. (I was just discussing the issues mentioned above with Chris Bennett, and he mentioned Nancy Pelosi, who would presumably become Speaker of the House if the Democrats take over. [ America Weakly ] When taking to Chris, I was venting on how frustrated I was by the above-mentioned mischaracterizations, and the fact that many of the so-called "Republican" foreign policy principles are not Republican or conservative at all, something that was clear during the previous presidency. When he mentioned Nancy Pelosi, I brought up the ironic fact that ten years ago, the Republican Party's nominee against her was none other than Justin Raimondo, and that Antiwar.com contains some good info on how Ms. Pelosi is actuallly pro-war, both during the Clinton administration, and during the current presidency as well. Here is my entry from years ago, about this issue, and National Review's Rich Lowry commented on this as well - Article link: "Nancy the Warrior")  (Also, the Democrat leader - in the Dems-take-the-House horror scenario - who would be the Chairman of the House International Relations Committee is another liberal San Francisco Congressman, Tom Lantos. As I said in that conversation with Chris, Lantos is currently the Ranking Democrat on that Committee, and [as mentioned in my entry below] is extremely pro-war - probably more so than almost all of the Republicans and Democrats in Congress. On the other hand, the current Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on International Relations, the esteemed [and unfortunately retiring] Henry Hyde, is not a war hawk... Congressman Hyde was not a strong supporter of the Iraq war, attempted to scale back President Bush's war powers, and has been among those conservative and Republican leaders who have been critical of the situation that this administration has gotten us into, and the philosophy behind it ( 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5, 6 )... A situation and philosophy which Congressman Lantos was among the most forceful in pushing - along with Top House Democrat Leader Dick Gephardt - and which he and others are now trying to run away from, to help their House candidates, so that they can get into majority leadership positions.)[ Top Dems Try to Run Away from the Mess They Created ... And right before the election! ] Anyway... Here is the article featured that day on Antiwar.com: Bush's Useful Idiots, Tony Judt, Sept. 21, 2006 It's great to see that despite the dishonesty and ignorance on this matter, some people have not forgotten the Democrats' and liberals' culpability in this war, and the ongoing mess in Iraq. |
