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THE NEOCONS ARE TALKING WAR—AGAIN
By Tom Barry
(Excerpted from a new Right Web analysis at: http://rightweb.irc-online.org/rw/3303)
The neocons are largely united over Iran policy, which they say should have three pillars: avoid diplomacy, which they call appeasing the “evildoers;” destabilize Iran and set the stage for regime change by supporting the “true democrats;” and bomb Iran before it poses an imminent threat to Israel or the United States.
The neocons and their allies in the Pentagon and vice president's office set the Bush administration's policy on Iraq. As they set their sights on the next target of preventive war and regime change, what the “scholars” at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Iran Policy Committee, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and other neocon groups are saying about Iran merits attention.
In both the House and the Senate, the large majority of policymakers on both sides of the aisle back the Iran Freedom and Democracy Act, whose unstated but implicit objective is U.S.-guided regime change in Iran. Nothing wrong with freedom and democracy—Iranians themselves clearly want more of both—but lawmakers are once again setting the stage for war, just as they did in the late 1990s when they passed similar neocon-inspired bills calling for the liberation of Iran.
Today, the gathering War Party on Iran is discussing a two-pronged strategy—having the United States and Israel begin preparations for military strikes, while at the same time immediately putting into motion a destabilization strategy involving U.S. support for Iranian dissidents.
Back in the 1980s, the neoconservatives who helped guide the rollback policies of the Reagan presidency didn't use the term “regime change.” But the policies they helped put in place—democratization aid to U.S. allies and covert support for “freedom fighters” in Central America, Afghanistan, and Angola—are playing out again in the war on terror. The neocons and liberal hawks are again playing what proved to be a successful strategy.
More alarming still is the easy talk circulating in Washington of missile strikes, bombing, and an expanded U.S. military presence in the Middle East.
Continue reading “The Neocons are Talking War—Again”
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Center for Security Policy
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Frank Gaffney
Über-hawk Gaffney, founder of the Center for Security Policy, makes a habit of sounding shrill alarms about supposedly grave threats to the nation. His current threat du jour: “Islamofacism.”
Iran Policy Committee
Iraq-based Iranian rebels—or terrorists, as the State Department calls them—should have a central hand in any new day dawning in Tehran, according to this new right-connected group.
Project for the New American Century
PNAC's glory days of agenda-setting followed the first election of George W. Bush; since then, the waning neocon organization has passed the torch to a neocon vanguard.
Tom Tancredo
The pro-war, anti-immigrant Republican senator from Colorado also supports violent regime change in Iran.
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