Go Back to the B3 Home Page
Complaints, compliments, arguments? Email me.
[<< "On to...Haiti?"] [Archive Index] [>>"AFL-CIO endorses Kerry."]
02/19/2004 Archived Entry: "Who wrote this?"
Who wrote this?
Gore Vidal? Noam Chomsky? Paul Krugman? Answer below, and it might surprise you.
On the dust jacket of his book, Richard Perle appends a Washington Post depiction of himself as the "intellectual guru of the hard-line neoconservative movement in foreign policy."The guru’s reputation, however, does not survive a reading. Indeed, on putting down Perle’s new book the thought recurs: the neoconservative moment may be over. For they are not only losing their hold on power, they are losing their grip on reality.
An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror opens on a note of hysteria. In the War on Terror, writes Perle, "There is no middle way for Americans: It is victory or holocaust." "What is new since 9/11 is the chilling realization that the terrorist threat we thought we had contained" now menaces "our survival as a nation."
But how is our survival as a nation menaced when not one American has died in a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11? Are we really in imminent peril of a holocaust like that visited upon the Jews of Poland?
"[A] radical strain within Islam," says Perle, " ... seeks to overthrow our civilization and remake the nations of the West into Islamic societies, imposing on the whole world its religion and laws."
Well, yes. Militant Islam has preached that since the 7th century. But what are the odds the Boys of Tora Bora are going to "overthrow our civilization" and coerce us all to start praying to Mecca five times a day?
Answer: 'Pitchfork Pat' Buchanan. These must be End times. Thanks to Xan for the link.
Replies: 3 people speak up
it sounds like Perle is experiencing a little bit of transferrence. after all, isnt it the neocons who are trying to do exactly what he just said to the non west? remake them in our image (well, their image, i want nothing to do with it) seems like the pot calling the kettle an extreemist.
Posted by justin @ 02/19/2004 12:53 PM NY
"For they are not only losing their hold on power, they are losing their grip on reality."
Should I be frightened that one of my favorite new quotes about the neocons came from Pat Freakin' Buchanan?
Posted by Jason @ 02/19/2004 09:06 PM NY
Ole Pat is pretty crazy, but he'll sure hand out red asses as he sees fit. I thought the whole article was great, he hits Isreal a little hard, but we've given them 100 billion dollars, which is a staggering figure, and all they seem to give us is a head ache...
Posted by matt @ 02/20/2004 03:38 PM NY
