Comments on: Zeal Not According To Knowledge

By: Abstractions « Upturned Earth

Abstractions « Upturned Earth — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:11:47 +0000

[...] (For more in a similar vein, see Larison and Poulos on Robert Kagan.) The parallels would be hilarious if their consequences hadn’t been so deadly, and the fact that Novak has managed to make himself so blind to them is deeply revealing. The sort of silliness dangerous ideological mania exemplified by so many on the neoconservative Right – whether calm, reflective elder statesmen like Novak and Kristol, analysts like Kagan and Ledeen, tub-thumping cheerleaders like Coulter, Goldfarb and the talk radio crowd, or cheeky, whippersnapperish hell-raisers like Jonah Goldberg and the rest [sic] of the College Republicans – recalls in countless ways the frantic, ideologically blinded “lockstep” tendencies of the Left with which Novak was voicing his displeasure. The chief difference, though, which is of course what makes the present situation such an especially terrifying one, is that in this case the radicals have got the Establishment on their side. [...]

By: Howard J. Harrison

Howard J. Harrison — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:34:33 +0000

(I would still say that Russian is not undemocratic, but it is illiberal because it is democratic, but authoritarian populist will do for now.)

This gem alone of a parenthetical statement makes the article worth reading. You might record it in your notebook for later use with a wider audience.

By: nrt

nrt — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:14:16 +0000

Query: when you say ‘international law as it actually exists,’ do you mean the combination of Articles 2(4), 2(7) and 51 of the UN Charter, or something else?

By: Grumpy Old Man

Grumpy Old Man — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:31:40 +0000

Well, Robert Kagan is more candid than the necon-in-the-street, and writes at a higher level.

That, in fact, makes this piece all the more cihilling. He’s conjuring a Cold War redux, without the Russian-Chinese rivalry that Nixon was out to exploit, and couching it in ideological terms.

The piece covers a lot of ground and is worthy of a lengthy rebuttlal, or more than one.

Scary stuff.