Neocons Cheer for War

According to an article in the Nation magazine by Ari Berman, over seventy percent of the neocons who ran the Iraq war have signed up as foreign policy advisors to Mitt Romney. Elliott Cohen served as counselor to Condoleeza Rice and in 2009 urged the Obama administration to “actively seek the overthrow of Iran’s government.” Robert Kagan the author of Romney’s American exceptionalism stance; Robert Joseph National Security Council who inserted the famous “16 words” in Bush’s 2003 SOTU address claiming Iraq tried to buy enriched uranium from Niger; Dan Senor, former spokesman for the CPA under Paul Bremmer, and Eric Edelman a top official at the Pentagon under President Bush.


Many of these advisors belonged to the PNAC, an influential neoconservative advocacy group founded in the ‘90’s. It has morphed into the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) launched by Kagan, Edelman and Senor. They advocate for regime change in Iran and a more confrontational stance with Russia. They are opposed to cuts in military spending.

Berman’s article goes on to quote Merrill Goozner, who wrote in the Fiscal Times “Romney’s plan to increase military spending coupled with tax cuts would require shrinking domestic spending to levels not seen since the Great Depression-before programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid began and would likely throw the US economy back into recession.”

“How do you get out of this state of interminable war?” asks Lawrence Wilkerson former chief of staff to Colin Powell. Certainly not with Mitt Romney and his foreign policy advisors advocating for more war.

Almost two thirds of the country believe the Iraq war was a mistake, yet Romney’s foreign policy advisors disagree with and advocate against the wishes of a majority of the voters.

Right now the largest US embassy is in Iraq, employing 16,000 contractors. To be fair, Obama wants to reduce that number to 8,000, but still, that’s a lot of jobs for small town USA.

Another term for Obama will not end perpetual war. It’s written in stone, no president can change it. That’s the real point, the decision has been taken out of the hands of the president and the voters. The empire marches on, while the neocon crowd cheers for more blood.