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On Jun 18, 2023, at 1:22 PM, graham via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:Todd, you have performed some interesting ideological contortions here — God knows to what end. In a Washington groaning with think tanks that all perpetuate in virtual unison what is essentially the American imperial/ hegemonic narrative, you call out the Quincy Institute as “conservative”? I am not interested in ideological genealogies or pedigrees that you like to track. It should be plain to any informed observer that the Quincy Institute is virtually, the only serious major think tank in washington, perhaps in the US, that pursues a basically progressive view of US foreign policy issues. If decrying war, opposing massive military budgets, criticizing provocative US approaches to Russia and China, and promoting the need for peaceful negotiations and the embrace of a more multilateral world isn’t progressive, then I don’t know what is—especially in a Washington that seems otherwise trapped in an ideological bubble of hegemonic uniformity.. You seem to perceive the Good here as the enemy of the Perfect. I, for one, I am grateful for small blessings of rationality that the Quincy Institute brings us that just may eventually nudge the Washington bubble into a more rational vision of the world.graham fullerOn Sunday, June 18, 2023, 9:49 AM, Todd Pierce via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:
--Chas just shared this article asking: "How long can Israel keep insulting its benefactors?"
That’s easy to answer. As long as we, the U.S., has Republican Conservative ZioCons calling themselves “Realists,” and claiming to be for “restraint” in foreign policy, as a monumental “Big Lie,” a “Deception Campaign.” With them leading the way in support for, and establishing the minimum level of support for Israeli fascism they’ll deem acceptable, for one to avoid being denounced as “anti-Israel/anti-Semitic, while simultaneously working to “outlaw” speech in support of the BDS Movement.
A “Realism” propagated most prominently and forcefully by The American Conservative magazine, but often by that other “Conservative/Realist” foreign policy promoter, the Quincy Institute, as well. And by the politicians/“political theorists” whom they always trot out to “re-orient” TAC’s past-readers, and to inculcate the current generation of “New Rightist” in the “direction” they’re now supposed to follow. As Trump (and Hillsdale/Claremont/CUA laid out, in favor of war on China (as motive for this type to “oppose” war on Russia, as war on China taking precedence for them, and saving Russia as a “mopping-up operation), in opposition to the “actual” Constitution, and demanding even more obsequiousness to Israeli fascist “interests.” As laid out by TAC’s favorite Straussian political theorist Michael Anton: (https://jewishinsider.com/2020/09/former-trump-nsc-official-michael-anton-speaks-out-on-foreign-policy/). Quote: “America has allies out of shared conviction and shared interests… Some of these alliances that you have are simply because of a natural affinity to democracies that share common values, and so on and so forth, and relationships built up over decades. And you don’t necessarily ask the question, ‘Hey, what am I getting out of this today?’ It’s not a calculation at every step of the way in foreign policy.”
With those “Traditional Conservatives” working along with like-minded “libertarians” to cut U.S. domestic spending, like USPS as one glaring example, in order to create more “room” in the budget for increased military spending, and more “aid” for Israel, as the NY Post article here disingenuously promoted, by the Republicans its author enthused over:With this showing the “interests” uppermost in Republican Mace’s mind:https://nancymace.org/issues/stand-with-israel/
and this in Republican Chip Roy’s, and other “Realist’s” defined “interests:” https://cc.org/congressman-chip-roy-leads-house-effort-to-cut-funding-to-anti-israel-u-n-office/co-sponsors: Mike Lee (R-Utah), Warren Davidson (OH-8), Dan Bishop (NC-8), Matt Gaetz (FL-1)
Not at all coincidentally, these “Conservative Realists” all have one thing in common: they’re adored by The American Conservative magazine as “Foreign Policy Experts,” and falsely described as being for “Realism and Restraint” (though not in an Orwellian way). While doing their utmost as well, without “Restraint,” to reducing the taxation of the Oligarch”s whose “interests” they seem to prioritize almost equal to Israeli fascists, and War on China! And, I would note, in a “Military Occupation,” as Israel’s is of Palestinian Territory, every Palestinian house destroyed, every Palestinian family displaced as ethnic cleansing, every illegal Settlement created or expanded, every bit of Palestinian land expropriated, every Palestinian ordered into “Military Detention,” etc., constitute “Acts of War.” Of which Trump fully joined in as a “co-belligerent,” without even the minimal “restraint” that Obama/Biden showed, and demonstrated with the “restraint” of the JCPOA.
P.S. I will leave it to you to search "Rep. Rob Good Israel,” to complete this. To include Rand Paul as a necessary “symbol” of “Restraint,” shown by joining in this deception (in my opinion) while fully engaged in enabling all the War Party’s Oligarchs to maximize their wealth, to maximize their war-profiteering. And maximizing his fund-raising by “protecting his brand.”
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