January 08, 2004

I KNOW IT WHEN I SEE IT

An End to Evil: Strategies For Victory in the War on Terror, by David Frum and Richard Perle.

A timely arrival in the ongoing discussion of what distinguishes neoconservatism as an ideology, if anything. I have no overarching definition to offer, but observe that only neocons could entitle a book "An End to Evil." Liberals don't believe in evil and conservatives know that it will always be with us. I'll have to go read the book to see if this is a matter of form or substance.

By the way, the Amazon comments are well worth reading, including, as they do, such gems as: "Neocons seek to serve the rich, repeal environmental laws, drastically downsize government, alter history, and above all else, issue in a 'Pax Americana,' an era of peace caused by America's imperial occupation of the entire world" or "Perhaps . . . we could lobotomize Perle and Frum . . . . I mean, seriously, how many Blofeld moments are we as a society going to let these neoconservative murderers get away with before we finally get off our a**es and DO something about them?! What we really need is a nationwide neoconservative purge . . . ."

Posted by David Cohen at January 8, 2004 01:23 PM
Comments

And to think, there's no limit on the number of children those people can have.

Posted by: Chris at January 8, 2004 01:28 PM

But then again, what fun would Dem primaries be without their most entertaining voters?

Posted by: Chris at January 8, 2004 02:12 PM

If they swing to the left far enough they'll not have any heirs anyway. Politics of death, for sure.

Posted by: bartman at January 8, 2004 02:44 PM

Those comments may have been intended as incisive refutations to the book. After all, they clearly show that evil has not ended.

Posted by: pj at January 8, 2004 03:04 PM

I don't know about the Democratic party, but I would rather live in a Pax Americana (with the all attendant constitutional protections) than live in any kind of Pax Romana or Pax Washingtonia.

Posted by: jim hamlen at January 8, 2004 04:13 PM

They're on Fresh Air today:

http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml?display=day&todayDate=01/08/2004

Posted by: oj at January 8, 2004 08:29 PM

I heard just a minute or two of it, and it happened to be about changing the military.

They don't get it. Clever machines are never gonna winkle dictators out of spider-holes.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at January 8, 2004 09:10 PM

Funny how those denigrating the neo-cons get Blofeld confused with Bond.

Posted by: ratbert at January 9, 2004 08:37 AM

Harry:

Sure they will.
After all, machines never get bored, they may be more inconspicous than troops, and they can see with infra-red vision, which would have detected the spider-hole long before humans did.

Posted by: THX 1138 at January 9, 2004 11:12 AM

Iraq is a nation without indoor plumbing. Maybe an IR detector could distinguish all the latrines from the desert, but it takes men to find dictators.

IR detectors are not very good at crowd control, municipal organization etc. You need an occupying force, at least for a time.

The British were the first to try mechanizing occupation, and they did it in Iraq. That's why Habbaniyah air base is outside Baghdad. Didn't work.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at January 9, 2004 04:54 PM
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