Anti-War Libertarian Scott Horton debates Neocon Imperialist Bill Kristol at Soho

[Fleetinglife]

This is peak stage orange analysis exposing the hypocrisy and failure behind discredited stage Blue/Orange Neoconist Imperialism with historical facts and evidence.

Hortons prepared speech is full of insightful historical facts, gems, and insights.

Great Opening Statement:

"America is in real trouble, for the last few years my opponent has been at a forefront of those warning against the death of modern liberalism and that far-right Trumpist populism is taking this country in a very dangerous direction, towards authoritarianism and maybe even dictatorship. But Mr. Crystal, you and David Brooks promised us 'national greatness'  you said, quote: 'America needed to be called to its grand destiny', 'nationalism', we needed, 'national strength and moral assertiveness abroad advancing the cause of freedom around the world', 'we needed a big project we can all do together'. As Christopher Beam Brooke's friend wrote: 'Invading Iraq suited his quest and yours for this greatness'. 

In his 1996 article Towards a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy (so these guys also started popularizing these almost meaningless and vapid 'neo' prefixes to their political and ideological beliefs - that I see more often than in the online political sphere used as meaningless moralistic condemnatory and panic spreading buzzwords aimed to dismissively project and sum up your assumptions about the political beliefs, stance, and economic and social positions of the person on the other side that you are having an argument against or accusing of holding said beliefs - anyway I digress) arguing for benevolent global hegemony, my opponent wrote that John Quincy Adams was wrong that 'that the U.S. should not go abroad seeking monsters to destroy'. 'Why not' he asked. For the exact reasons Quincy Adams delineated: 'Our principles would turn from liberty to force, we would become the dicatrists of the world but no longer the ruler of our own spirit', he said. Adams was right, the wars did not make America great.''

Important historical info about the backdrop behind the modern terrorism phenomena:

5:14

"When David Wormser wrote his clean break plan for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first government in 1996 he acknowledged that targeting secularist dictators Hussein and Assad for regime change in Iraq and Syria could further fan the flames of Islamist Anti-American Terrorism but he said the solution to that problem will just have to wait until the war against them was over. Maybe in 1996, this was somehow understandable, from a hawks perspective at least. According to Richard Schultz in the Weekly Standard, the Pentagon Joint Cheif of Staff would repeat as a cliche, quote: ''Terrorism is a small price to pay for being a superpower.''

This quote by Horton at 10:54 I found as a gem of hidden truth:

"The U.S. government has not spread liberty but the tyranny of the majority, not free markets but corrupt crony contracting, not peace and security but mass sectarian violence and destabilization, this has led to increasing support to left and right-wing 'socialism' around the world in reaction.''

This part is gold since it captures, in my opinion, one of the main causations behind the truth of the justification of the current moment of the popularity of this mass anti-liberal and illiberal sentiment politically among people in America, Europe, China, Russia, Iran, and elsewhere around the world:

''Liberalism and democracy have been discredited in the broadest sense as meaning nothing more than supplication to American demands or cheap excuses for our violent intervention...no wonder that here in America as well people are moving to the socialist left and nationalist right since the disastrous consequences of militarism and regime change are what passes for liberalism in the center''

Its 18 minutes long but in my opinion a gem worth watching if you want to be quickly informed on the extra causations of the genesis of the contemporary state of the U.S. and the world politically, U.S. foreign policy in the last two decades, and a half, and the origins of the structural underlying causes behind current global political polarization. Horton masterfully details and explains how he views the reasons for that from his libertarian anti-interventionist perspective.

Edited October 8, 2021 by Fleetinglife

[Fleetinglife]

The part also where he talks about the underlying structural causes and the culture that neocons fostered among the American Right is also very indicative:

Horton:

''Trump's election was a reaction to the military and economic legacy of the preceding fifteen years and its central liberal establishment champions, including the neoconservatives. And who? A guy who builds his political capital proclaiming on talk radio that Obama was a 'secret pro-terrorist Muslim from Kenya'. In other words, your nemesis Trump was exploiting your movement's previous cultivation of this illiberal sentiment among Republican voters back when it was still useful for your ends building support for the wars. Now that the anti-Muslim chauvinism is no longer useful, now you claim that the Right is itself the greatest threat to democracy. If so this is the nationalist movement that the neoconservatives have done so much to cultivate and promote, for Bin Laden and his friends were few, but would-be enemies who happened to be Muslim were many. So Bush and the neocons supported the worst sort of nationalist right-wing populism in America, especially with their nod and wink approach with the Muslim hating hacks on the AM talk radio. It was central to Karl Rove's plan for his permanent Republican majority...This deliberately deceptive campaign did much to make the Right worse.''

Edited October 8, 2021 by Fleetinglife