McCain and the Neocon axis

Remember the neoconservatives, those fine folks who led the way to the Bush Doctrine and the Iraq War? I bet you thought they were discredited, exposed to all the world as dangerous zealots and frauds, morally and intellectually bankrupt, banished to the wilderness where they could bicker amongst themselves but do no more real damage to the human race.

Think again.

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:

If John McCain wins, for all that has happened over the last eight years in Iraq and elsewhere, we would get a new president even more closely tied to the DC neoconservative axis than President Bush has ever been.

You can say that again.

Did I mention that you could say that again?

In fact, this probably can't be said enough. In light of all the damage they've already done, I'm disturbed that McCain's phalanx of neoconservative imperialists is not getting more attention.

Jacob Heilbrunn, writing in The Washington Post, described the neonservatives as "the most feared and reviled intellectual movement in American history." But Heilbrun also noted that the McCain campaign may enable these flesh-eating zombies to rise from the politically dead and wreak further mayhem upon the living:

Now that Robert Kagan, William Kristol ... and a host of other neocons have hitched their fortunes to McCain, the neocons are poised for a fresh comeback.

Heilbrunn, at Huffington Post, on the neocon-McCain symbiosis:

McCain represents for the neocons the ultimate synthesis of war hero and politician. And McCain, in turn, has been increasingly drawn to the neocons' militaristic vision of the U.S. as an empire that can set wrong aright around the globe. ...If McCain becomes president, the neocons will be in charge.

If you liked the Iraq War, you'll love a McCain administration.

Where does this deadly deja vu come from? Why are we susceptible time and again to the siren song of militaristic jingoism? Here's part of the answer.