Recently I read that Robert Kagan is the smartest neocon around and, being enormously competitive, I bought a couple of his books– skinny ones–to figure out what makes him so goddamn smart. And then it came to me: I have to spend more time in the south of France! A few of Kagan’s mots juste:
Louis XIV remarked, “L’Etat c’est moi”
Napoleon attempted to promote egalite and fraternite with the sword
France’s proposed defense budget increase will prove, like the force de frappe
Hubert Vedrine coined the term hyperpuissance to describe an American behemoth
But leaving aside French amour propre
Some Frenchmen still yearn for la gloire
Joschka Fischer’s volte face was the most striking
Bourbon kings and other powerful monarchs spoke of raison d’etat
Europeans may want to pursue an accommodating Ostpolitik
The European government and peoples believed in Machtpolitik
The ancient Greeks believed that embedded in human nature was something called thumos
The modern European strategic culture represents a rejection of the evils of Machtpolitik
the dangers that arise from balance of power and raison d’etat
historically minded European Machiavels
raison d’etat and the amorality of Machiavelli’s theories
arguments over Germany’s Ostpolitik
Europeans were still extolling the laws of Machtpolitik
Their actions may be justified by raison d’etat
Well, judging by hard he is to follow, he’s smart but not as smart as Witty.
How gauche … I mean droite, or recht as they say in German. Some Italians might argue that he is simply trying to cut a bella figura, using all of these superfluous foreign bons (and not so bons) mots, but what is it the English call someone like that? Ah yes, le pretentious prat.
Who thinks he is so smart? Kagan and team want the next bloody stop to be Iran
Arrogant in response to someone’s serious question.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0bP6ddn6KQ
Sometimes I have found myself agreeing with some of the things he says
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skQ9ahgmM8Q
Mearsheimer and Walt mention Kagan in their book
http://books.google.com/books?id=bQHXJ4JzxV4C&pg=PT273&lpg=PT273&dq=robert+kagan+and+the+Israeli+lobby&source=bl&ots=AObgcpaupA&sig=pwnnUlIZf3JkwcUe03NWeSFEmus&hl=en&ei=PSTBTpvXHsXHsQL2sKCsBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=robert%20kagan%20and%20the%20Israeli%20lobby&f=false
And thanks Phil for alerting us to Kagan joining the Romney team
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2011/10/no-problem-obamas-state-dept-spokesperson-is-married-to-romneys-neocon-foreign-policy-adviser.html
http://www.stopaipac.org/qumsiyeh.htm
” In an April 2003 issue of the Jewish Forward magazine, we read “As President Bush attempted to sell the … war in Iraq, America’s most important Jewish organizations rallied as one to his defense. In statement after statement community leaders stressed the need to rid the world of Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction.”
In the 1 October 2001 issue of the Weekly Standard, Israeli apologists Robert Kagan and William Kristol called for regime change in Iraq after changing the regime in Afghanistan. They and the cadre of Israeli apologists (both leaning to the Democratic Party and leaning to the neocon wing of the Republican party) repeated these calls often in countless interviews and articles. One could fill a whole book on these quotes but it is the actions of Israeli advocates within Congress and within the administration carried more weight. Of course those within government are functionaries who pay heed to where their money and support comes from when elections come around. You can bet that those inside the government watched carefully and got the messages when the the Council of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations had Iraq on top of its agenda on July 26, 2002
The history of this period leading up to the war will be written by historians when all the documents are declassified and/or leaked from the hundreds of Israel-first think tanks and other lobby organizations become available. But enough material exists to draw a rather somber reminder for those who now bought the non-sense that Iran is a threat to the US. I think it is critical for people who want to understand and hopefully prevent the upcoming war on Iran to first understand the lobby’s role in pushing the war on Iraq. While I wrote about this issue before (see for example, Connect the Dots) the most thorough research on this issue was done by Professors Mearsheimer and Walt. So here is the section of the work of these two distinguished professors that is worth reading or rereading. This will help start the process of rethinking the slippery slope that the endless and misnamed “war on terrorism” has been taking people and why. Only such an understanding disseminated to people around the world who then act could help humanity avoid the international catastrophe that would be an attack on Iran (which would make the mayhem in Iraq look like a walk in the park by comparison). Go to excerpt of Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy “
Wow! Thanks! What a smarter-than-anyone-else guy this smarter-than-the-other-neocons Robert Kagan must be!!
Why, I could spend whole minutes on Google looking up this stuff (“greek:thumos” -> high spirits).
And how really, really dumb the other neocons must be if they cannot flaunt such knowledge with such flair, such elan, such je ne sais quoi.
But, smart or not, they (collectively) got USA into two really, really stupid and costly wars, and are working on a third. So don’t knock them too much. Results count as much as brains, honor, humanity, and all that other soft, mushy stuff.
Phil the BBC World Service just did a fairly lengthy segment on outside Foreign donations to Palestinian human rights groups being cut.
Focus on “foreign meddling” No mention of US funding being used to help build illegal settlements.
think you would be interested. Can not find the link