{"id":12487,"date":"2008-06-13T06:06:02","date_gmt":"2008-06-13T12:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=12487"},"modified":"2008-06-13T06:06:02","modified_gmt":"2008-06-13T12:06:02","slug":"andrew-sullivans-empire-of-incoherence-karl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=12487","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Sullivan’s Empire of Incoherence [Karl]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back on May 31st, Excitable Andy<\/a> wrote of of the proposed Iraq security pact:<\/p>\n

50 long-term military bases<\/em>. How is that not empire?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The answer was obvious then, but now\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0even he admits the term is “excessive,”<\/a> though he still views the\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0pact as “something perilously close” to empire.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 One reason he offers is that “Muslims everywhere would regard such a large US presence as an affront.”<\/p>\n

Yet a mere four paragraphs later, Andy dribbles this out:<\/p>\n

What I fear is that the Bush administration and many neo-conservatives are claiming one thing, while planning for another; and after the last eight years, the trust level is low. I fear they want a permanent presence in Iraq to reassure Israel; and to pursue the option of war with Iran. I fear the bases are there to detain, contain or attack the regional Shiite power, Iran, and to reassure the regional Sunni powers that the US military will protect them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0Sully forgot that the Sunnis are Muslims.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Indeed,\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0Sunnis are approximately 90%<\/a> of the Muslim population worldwide.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 The Saudis<\/a> have been pretty public in suggesting they prefer McCain over Obama because of his commitment to staying in Iraq and countering the spread of Iranian influence:<\/p>\n

“They are worried about any deal the Democrats may cut with Iran,” said Henri Barkey, a foreign policy adviser to Obama and former State Department policy planner, who now heads the international relations department at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0Sully might want to work out how reassuring the Sunni powers of the region is an affront to Muslims everywhere.<\/p>\n

Sully might also want to reflect on the fact that nations including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt and\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0Yemen have recently approached the UN\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0to\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0express interest in starting nuclear power programs — in part due\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0to concerns about a future regional arms race<\/a> stoked\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0by Iran\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0seeming interest in\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0nuclear weapons.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 (Even developing nations<\/span><\/a> have joined the West\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0in\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0support of the IAEA\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s attempt to get Iran to clarify intelligence alleging that it secretly researched ways of making atom bombs.)\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 It seems like there is a lot of interest among Muslim powers and\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0non-Muslim powers\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0in seeking to contain or deter Iran’s nuclear plans.<\/p>\n

In fact, Sully’s main mancrush, Barack Obama<\/a> told AIPAC last week:<\/p>\n

“I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon<\/span>, everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon – everything.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, Obama<\/a> said he would always leave the military option on the table.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 He wants to get out of Iraq, but for the military option to be credible (and presumably the ultimate stick backing Obama’s promised tough diplomacy), he has spoken of having troops remain elsewhere in the region — where they will be\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0the subject of complaint by the extremists, just as Osama bin Laden complained of US bases in Saudi Arabia.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Extremists are very good at finding reasons to be affronted.<\/p>\n

But hyperbolic claims of empire, elevating the complaints of extremists over the concerns of the rest of the world, conflating containment and attack are all forms of the incoherency Sully exhibits because his stated fear is of evil BushCo and evil neocons, rather than the threat of a nuclear Iran followed by a Mideast arms race.<\/p>\n

Update:<\/strong> HotAir-lanche!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back on May 31st, Excitable Andy wrote of of the proposed Iraq security pact: 50 long-term military bases. How is that not empire? The answer was obvious then, but now\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0even he admits the term is “excessive,” though he still views the\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0pact as “something perilously close” to empire.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 One reason he offers is that “Muslims everywhere would regard such a large US presence as an affront.” Yet a mere four paragraphs<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":636,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/636"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}