Why Are These Professional War Peddlers Still Around?

[Right_in_Virginia]

Why Are These Professional War Peddlers Still Around?
Pundits like Max Boot and Bill Kristol got everything after 9/11 wrong but are still considered "experts."
American Conservative, Feb 15, 2019, Tucker Carlson

One thing that every late-stage ruling class has in common is a high tolerance for mediocrity. Standards decline, the edges fray, but nobody in charge seems to notice. They’re happy in their sinecures and getting richer. In a culture like this, there’s no penalty for being wrong. The talentless prosper, rising inexorably toward positions of greater power, and breaking things along the way. It happened to the Ottomans. Max Boot is living proof that it’s happening in America.

[...]

“Once we have deposed Saddam, we can impose an American-led, international regency in Baghdad, to go along with the one in Kabul,” Boot wrote. “To turn Iraq into a beacon of hope for the oppressed peoples of the Middle East: Now that would be a historic war aim. Is this an ambitious agenda? Without a doubt. Does America have the resources to carry it out? Also without a doubt.”

In retrospect, Boot’s words are painful to read, like love letters from a marriage that ended in divorce. Iraq remains a smoldering mess. The Afghan war is still in progress close to 20 years in. For perspective, Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of France, crowned himself emperor, defeated four European coalitions against him, invaded Russia, lost, was defeated and exiled, returned, and was defeated and exiled a second time, all in less time than the United States has spent trying to turn Afghanistan into a stable country.

[...]

Listed in one place, Boot’s many calls for U.S.-led war around the world come off as a parody of mindless warlike noises, something you might write if you got mad at a country while drunk. (“I’ll invade you!!!”) Republicans in Washington didn’t find any of it amusing. They were impressed. Boot became a top foreign policy adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008, to Mitt Romney in 2012, and to Marco Rubio in 2016.

Everything changed when Trump won the Republican nomination. Trump had never heard of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He had no idea Max Boot was a Leading Authority on Armed Conflict. Trump was running against more armed conflicts. He had no interest in invading Pakistan. Boot hated him.


More:  https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-are-these-professional-war-peddlers-still-around-tucker-carlson-max-boot-bill-kristol/

[Right_in_Virginia]

Terrific article by Carlson.  Chock full of lots of information on Boot ANd Bill Kristol.  Quite a takedown. 

Personally, I would have added Bolton to the essay.

[Absalom]

Kristol is the offspring of Trotskyites of the thirties and
a self-labeled neo-con artist while Boot is a lefty shill.
Turn off the tee-vee.

[TomSea]

Some might question Elliot Abrams as well.

[EdJames]

{self-edited comment on kristol and boot.}   

[Fishrrman]

I don't have problems with warmongers.
I -do- have problems with WHICH wars they monger.

I'm all for a few more new "wars":
- with Iran (in partnership with Israel) -- wipe out their nuclear capabilities and much of their military as we can in the process.
- with Venezuela (shouldn't last too long to clean that place up).

And of course, we should mobilize our troops on the southern border, AFTER we pull 'em out of Iraq and Afghanistan (what a waste of blood and treasure, the both of them).

[Bigun]

I don't have problems with warmongers.
I -do- have problems with WHICH wars they monger.

I'm all for a few more new "wars":
- with Iran (in partnership with Israel) -- wipe out their nuclear capabilities and much of their military as we can in the process.
- with Venezuela (shouldn't last too long to clean that place up).

And of course, we should mobilize our troops on the southern border, AFTER we pull 'em out of Iraq and Afghanistan (what a waste of blood and treasure, the both of them).

We don't need to go to war in either place.  All we need to do is provide a little assistance to the proper people and they will take care of the rest.

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

We don't need to go to war in either place.  All we need to do is provide a little assistance to the proper people and they will take care of the rest.

Got it.

Not our circus. Not our monkies.

Let the people who stand to benefit most do the lifting and toting.

[DCPatriot]

Terrific article by Carlson.  Chock full of lots of information on Boot ANd Bill Kristol.  Quite a takedown. 

Personally, I would have added Bolton to the essay.

   Excellent!

[TomSea]

The American Conservative, the day after:

Trump’s Irresponsible Venezuela Speech
By Daniel Larison • February 18, 2019, 9:27 PM

Trump made some more reckless threats against the Venezuelan government in an irresponsible speech in Miami:

...

Once an administration starts down the regime change path, it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid escalation. If another few weeks go by and Maduro is still in de facto control of the country, we will start hearing the inevitable demands that the U.S. needs to “do more” to force him out. In another few months, Trump will be facing more demands to back up his threatening rhetoric with much more aggressive action, and at that point he won’t have left himself any way out without climbing down from his ridiculous demands.

Read more at: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/trumps-irresponsible-venezuela-speech/

If one quotes the American Conservative,   then, check out some other things they say for the sake of consistency.

"I like this article but not this one."

[TomSea]

Or this out there today, I expect to get the big thumbs up too:

Trump’s Alarming Abuse of Executive Power
The only 'national emergency' is a president who violates the Constitution to get his way.
By Bruce Fein • February 19, 2019

There may be worse executive power abuses than President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build a wall on the Mexican border that Congress has steadfastly refused to fund. But if there are, they don’t readily come to mind.

Trump’s national emergency declaration is worse than the 59 others declared by presidents since 1976 because it was employed to usurp the express power of the purse—the most important congressional check on executive abuses.

Only two of the prior national emergency declarations involved the expenditure of funds not appropriated by Congress: one by George H.W. Bush in 1990 during the run-up to the Persian Gulf War, and the other by George W. Bush in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks.

Read more at:  https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/trumps-alarming-abuse-of-executive-power/

So there you have it. I hope the Venezuelan venture and other, the wall works out.  Now, looking for that pat on the back, the camraderie, the thumbs up.



I gave up on TAC; because there is no shortage of articles where they come down pretty hard on Trump!  This is off-topic to an extent on subject matter but if one uses TAC, again, it should be a bit more than pick and choose, even if it is Tucker Carlson writing for them.

  Excellent!