more on neo-conservatives (2nd or 3d try at posting)

[Michael Eisenstadt]

Byron,

It is interesting that Germany, Italy, Japan,
and Serbia were all bombed by US and became
democracies.

G, I, and J had a history of parliamentary
government before dictators took over. Culturally
G & I are Western and J having Westernized since
the 1870s is a special case. Even now J's
parliamentary system is not fully democratic.
Serbia is very criminalized but with apparently
functioning parliamentary government.

it is clear to me that Bush was an empty vessel
before the neo-cons got to him. Before
9-11 and during his campaign, Bush was a 
standard type non-interventionist like Dole
for example. well, after 9-11 his vessel got
filled by the extremist neocon interventionist
school. i am only now catching up on this
backwards especially after hearing Terry Gross
interview William Kristol who gave a very 
plausible case for intervention in Iraq. 
I said "plausible", I was not convinced. 

i have been reading a book of essays by his
father Irving Kristol. much, much of what he
says is full of it. he is full of strange
resentments in terms of his private choice of
life style versus others of more libertine
or liberationist stamp. imagine bragging how
he never even thought to fuck his fiance 
before their mariage, indeed it is a point 
of honor for him. he has been married to 
a writer named Gertrude Himmelblau who is
a very shrill extreme conservative. this
whole type of conservative of moral rectitude
(like William Bennett) has an old-timey
19th century American prudery to it which is
hard to believe has survived to this day.

another point of honor with him is that
he and his wife's first rent apartment was
NOT in Greenwich Village but on 94th street.
how's that for rectitude! and later he 
brags about moving to Washington DC and
getting away from dem NY liberals. He and
his wife quit their academic gigs and he
was made a paid scholar at the American
Enterprise Institute some 20 or more years
ago. this institute is funded by some of
the creepiest capitalists in the country.
in a recent book of theirs i was reading
i saw a list of the patrons: do eg Ken Lay, 
& Dick Cheney turn you on?

so Bush in picking Cheney became an
instrument of Cheney's very extreme 
American Enterprise Institute views.

William Kristol his son has picked up a
snotty attitude from his parents but he
is way brighter than his dad. his position
is that there is no reason why Moslem
countries can not be brought into the 
comity of civilized nations. for example
Turkey is Moslem but is a democracy. of
course that extraordinary state of events
was effected from within by Ataturk.

He sorta spoke of the threat to America
that Iraq posed but not really. his real
agenda was to argue for extending the
rule of law to Iraq and other countries
by war based on the preponderance of American
power. he of course is not personally at risk and 
does not choose to consider the cruelty
of his position vis-a-vis others' suffering. 
he would argue that the war in Iraq will
reduce suffering.

Mike