The tiny but well-placed – and very well-financed – political sect known as the neoconservatives is in panic mode. Discredited by the disastrous war in Iraq, and implicated in the trail of lies that led us into that quagmire, the neocons are deathly afraid that the jig is up: that their agenda of perpetual war and extravagant “defense” spending is coming up against the limits both of the US Treasury, and the willingness of the American people to finance it.
They’re living in fear of the so-called tea party, the spontaneous grassroots rebellion against runaway federal spending that has successfully challenged the GOP establishment and wants to cut big government down to size – with a meat axe. Not that the tea partiers have even brought up the idea that military spending ought to be treated like all government spending and summarily subjected to the chopping block, but, hey, the whole idea of preemption as a strategic principle originated in the neocon brain. We’ve had a veritable fusillade of op eds, first from Danielle Pletka and Thomas Donnelly in the Washington Post the other day, and today it’s the War Street Journal‘s turn to go to the barricades for the Old Cause.
A cheaper military is not necessarily a weaker military: indeed, a leaner fighting force, one geared to the realistic objectives of the post-cold war era, is in all ways a stronger, more capable, more useful military configuration. This is what a real “defense” budget would entail: but the neocons aren’t interested in defense: they want to play offense. It was, after all, Kristol’s little subsidized magazine that plumbed for war with Iraq, and is now agitating tirelessly for war with Iran. Beyond that, it was the Standard that published Max Boot’s infamous article, “The Case for American Empire,” which called for establishing US colonies around the world.
What we have is a bankrupt empire – and that’s the sort of empire that inevitably goes into decline. If we follow the advice of Kristol and his buddies, we’ll be in receivership in no time.
It’s great to see the neocons so worried: anything that makes them nervous is a good thing. Now, come on, you tea partiers, let’s give them something to worry about!
