StephenKMackSD's Blog

In part four of his essay Mr. Kagan begins his self-congratulatory rationale for the American Empire, larded with the cliches of past empires, and the shopworn arguments of the present coterie of apologists for American Exceptionalism. Here is an example of this rhetoric, it is utterly embarrassing to read this third rate self-effacing chatter!  And I have added additional examples from Mr. K.’s seemingly endless cornucopia of public moralizing. Continue reading →

Like his political ally Mr. Fukuyama, Mr. Kagan does not know the power of brevity, although Mr. Kagan has the good sense that Mr. Fukuyama lacks, namely, he does not resort to shopworn Hegelian rhetoric to rescue his banal thoughts from their true status, as plain old politically reactionary chatter. Although each writer tries the patience, forbearance, to near fracture, of the careful reader.  Neither is a very accomplished writer, yet Mr. Kagan has his moments, with the proviso that as writer he is simply a more effective propagandist. But he drones on and on and on: is the real question of this interminable apologetic for an historically inevitable American Hegemon, as the counterweight to the Eurasian Hegemon, i.e. Putin as the New Stalin? This should have been a mini-series on A&E starring Robert Mitchum, in his salad days! Here are some randomly selected quotes from Mr. Kagan’s essay at the New Republic site that I found of interest on my first, and with luck, my last reading of this rhetorical monster!  Continue reading →

Mr. Brooks in his column, at the New York Times web site, of June 12, 2014 examines the failures of American Policy in Iraq since the American invasion and finds the whole of it a collection of grievous mistakes, miscalculation and just plain policy incompetence. Add to these failures that of implementation and a lack of commitment, not speak of the failed leadership of both Bush and Obama : Continue reading →

Where else but the Wall Street Journal, a Murdoch publication, would Neo-Conservatism’s reclusive intellectual pontiff, Francis Fukuyama be given space to opine on his own essay of 1989, ‘The End of History’? From a small essay to a intellectually bloated best seller, one might compare it, in a retrospective look at the intellectual history of American reactionary ideas, to the 1996 phenomenon of Samuel P. Huntington’s ‘Clash of Civilizations’. You might even say that they bookend the decade of the 90’s, in a kind of asymmetric way. Let me begin with the opening paragraphs of Mr. Fukuyama’s essay: Continue reading →

Mr. Leslie Gelb in his essay at the Daily Beast titled Old Flaws in Obama’s New Foreign Policy begins his piece with these four paragraphs: Continue reading →

It’s seems as if Mr. Beinart has not read very carefully the President’s May 28, 2014 address, nor it’s precursor, the speech of December 1, 2009, both delivered at West Point. Or more pointedly he reads them ideologically, with his re-imagined Eisenhower as central rhetorical actor. The themes of the 2009 and 2014 speeches reflect many of the same points, only the passage of time and events separate them. In both speeches the President clearly demonstrates that he is a captive to his own faith in the notion and practice of American exceptionalism, and all that that entails in policy terms. The President simply commits to a more modest version of that pernicious idea. Continue reading →

David Frum in his Atlantic magazine essay titled Obama at West Point: A Foreign Policy of False Choices has this to say about the West Point address and his interpretation of how the President views his office:

Obama might personally think that America’s relative loss of clout is a trend beyond his control or correction. He would not be the first statesman to guide the foreign policy of a declining power. He would not even be the first American president to believe that such was his lot. Under adverse conditions, the responsibilities of leadership become even heavier than when times are easier. Yet embedded in the president’s West Point speech is a remarkably passive view of his office.

Continue reading →

There really isn’t much here except the usual hectoring Frum Chatter. Mr. Frum gets great mileage out of reminding/lecturing the President of the political reality of a vocal opposition. But is utterly disingenuous about the nihilist Republican opposition’s destructive vendetta against the President. That is so pervasive an idee fixe that the Party has abandoned governance, for active sabotage of legislation, that might help the victims of the still stalled economy: an extension of Unemployment benefits. Although they managed to pass the Ryan Budget- call this ‘budget’ public relations chicanery!
Mr. Frum does mention Ukraine, which has been one of the great successes of his political fellow traveler Victoria Nuland, in alliance with the EU and ‘Yats’ and his Right Sector and Svoboda allies. This victory for American political adventurism fully supported by the President, rhetorically framed in the reality of a New Cold War, as virulent Russo-phobia and Putin as the New Stalin. The success of the American backed Ukrainian Coup, must remain, for reasons of Frum’s political convenience and opportunism, unexpressed.
From both President Obama’s 2009 and 2014 addresses delivered at West Point, he remains an unapologetic imperialist, expressed as the notion and practice of ‘American Exceptionalism’. The President reaffirms that faith without apology, but that faith isn’t quite enough for Mr. Frum, he prefers a more bellicose expression of the cult of American mastery. President Obama is too gentile, too reserved, too measured an imperialist. Drone murder is not quite enough to slake Mr. Frum’s appetite for war, after all he is a Neo-Conservative, with no military experience: a perfect policy adviser in the Kissinger mold, or armchair general?

Political Observer

Read first the concluding portion of the President’s speech from 2009, and then read excepts from the 2014 address and compare not an evolution of American Imperial thought, but the tired recitation of  American Exceptionalist cliches.

President Obama December 1, 2009 West Point. Continue reading →

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/what-putin-wants/361622/

‘The Axis of Evil’ was once the signature hysteria mongering calling card of Mr. Frum. Now, he and his new political ally, of the moment, Mr. Ben Judah, have a more historically relevant propaganda campaign to wage, the revival of the Cold War, with it’s lead character, Putin as the New Stalin. Mr. Frum quite convincingly reiterates Mr. Judah’s reportage. And it is damming, yet should we as readers of this essay be very cautious about the political motives of Putin, but most especially of Mr. Frum who frames his Russo-phobia with the aid of the reportage of Mr. Judah? To put the readers qualms to rest , Mr. Frum assures his readers that Mr. Judah is a highly credentialed ‘reporter’ of the Putin phenomenon. It’s not so much that I doubt that Putin is a corrupt ,self-seeking politician, capable of multiple outrages, political and ethical. But that Mr. Frum resembles the Putin described by Mr. Judah, as utterly without scruple.
The political machinations of Victoria Nuland, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the Right Sector remain off stage in this carefully messaged essay. The active American and EU support for the Ukrainian Coup, for Coup it was, are inconvenient background information that might thoroughly undermine the case Mr. Frum, with the aid of Mr. Judah’s through demonizing of Putin, might have made possible. A potted history serves the purpose of propaganda, in this case pertinent but inconvenient facts are elided from this essay, Mr. Frum can, at the least, manufacture coherent propaganda.

Political Cynic