{"id":1108,"date":"2014-06-26T18:45:39","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T22:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1108"},"modified":"2014-06-26T18:45:39","modified_gmt":"2014-06-26T22:45:39","slug":"the-neoconservative-ideology-and-the-mess-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/06\/the-neoconservative-ideology-and-the-mess-in-iraq.html","title":{"rendered":"The Neoconservative Ideology and the Mess in Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

That the vast majority of Republicans remain as committed as ever to a strong American military presence in Iraq has everything to do with the neoconservative<\/em> ideology that dominates their party.<\/p>\n

Unlike traditional conservatives, neoconservatives subordinate the contingencies of history and culture to such abstract universal \u201cprinciples\u201d as \u201chuman rights\u201d and\/or \u201cLiberty\u201d\u2014principles in which they locate America\u2019s unique, supra-historical origins. \u00a0The latter, in turn, endows America with it special, indeed, messianic, <\/em>mission to protect \u201cLiberty\u201d\u2014to promote what neoconservatives call, \u201cliberal democracy\u201d\u2014for peoples everywhere.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is this<\/em> ideological creed of theirs that accounts for why neoconservatives have always favored an American presence in Iraq.<\/p>\n

And it is this creed that explains why neoconservatives favor the presence of the American military, not just in those places where \u201cliberal democracy\u201d is absent; but even in those places\u2014like Japan, Germany, and South Korea\u2014where it has been present <\/em>for decades but is, presumably, insufficiently stable and in dire need of American soldiers to prop it up.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s see how this ideology plays out in the current discussion over the disaster that is Iraq.<\/p>\n

When President Obama declared that the war in Iraq was \u201cover\u201d in 2011, his neoconservative critics blasted him.\u00a0 Obama, being as much of an ideologue as anyone, had his own reasons for making this declaration: it was a pretext that gave him cover for making the politically advantageous decision to begin withdrawing American soldiers.\u00a0 Neoconservatives opposed Obama\u2019s call, contending that there wasn\u2019t any basis for his claim.<\/p>\n

But now, it is they <\/em>who insist that the war really was over, even if neoconservatives instead choose to speak of the war as having been \u201cwon\u201d prior to the troop withdrawal.\u00a0 This semantics trickery, though, is unconvincing, for if victory had been achieved in Iraq, as we are now being told, then Obama was correct and the war was<\/em> over.<\/p>\n

However, if the war in Iraq had been won, then what would be the point in continuing to deploy more American lives and treasure to that region?\u00a0 To this, the neoconservative can respond easily enough: We remain in Iraq for the same reason that we\u2019ve remained in Germany, Japan, South Korea, etc.:\u00a0 To insure that our victory is not lost.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s us now spell out the implications of the neoconservative ideology.<\/p>\n

First, the neoconservative is theoretically committed to expending American resources in blood, time, and treasure all around the globe and until the end of time.\u00a0 The belief that America exists for the sake of promoting and defending, not the liberties<\/em> of Americans<\/em>, but the abstraction of \u201cLiberty,\u201d the \u201cLiberty<\/em>\u201d of Earthlings<\/em>, necessarily leads to this conclusion.<\/p>\n

Secondly, though he routinely rails against \u201cBig Government,\u201d the neoconservative is just as much a friend to it as are his enemies to his left.\u00a0 In fact, it is arguable that neoconservatives are actually more <\/em>wedded to Big Government. The neoconservative vision, after all, requires an American military possessed of potentially limitless <\/em>power.\u00a0 The military is government, and big military is<\/em> Big Government.<\/p>\n

Indeed, without the military, the (national) government would be but the proverbial paper tiger.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, insofar as neoconservatives believe that \u201cAmerica\u201d ought to fight for \u201cLiberty\u201d wherever around the globe it happens to be threatened, they believe that the American taxpayer\u2014you and I\u2014have a duty to work extra hours, to part with our hard earned dollars, to say nothing of parting with the lives of our sons and daughters, to defend the \u201cLiberty\u201d of non-Americans throughout the Earth.<\/p>\n

The American citizen<\/em>, the neoconservative would have us think, exists to sacrifice life, limb, and treasure for the citizens of the world.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s critical to grasp that neoconservatives aren\u2019t just telling Americans that this is what they ought <\/em>to do.<\/p>\n

Since the mission to fight for \u201cLiberty\u201d is a government enterprise that, like all other government exploits, is subsidized by citizens, neoconservatives are saying that this is what Americans must be compelled <\/em>to do.<\/p>\n

Finally, as long as \u201cvictory\u201d requires a perpetual American military presence in the lands of those who the United States \u201cdefeated,\u201d then there is no victory.\u00a0 Think about it: Suppose someone razes your old house and builds you a new one in its stead.\u00a0 Would you consider the job completed, a success, if the only way to keep your new house from collapsing is for the builder or his team of construction workers to move in with you and indefinitely prop it up?\u00a0 And wouldn\u2019t it be that much more horrible of a deal if you knew that you would have to continue to pay <\/em>them to live in and sustain your home?<\/p>\n

This is the neoconservative ideology that underwrote the war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That the vast majority of Republicans remain as committed as ever to a strong American military presence in Iraq has everything to do with the neoconservative ideology that dominates their party. Unlike traditional conservatives, neoconservatives subordinate the contingencies of history and culture to such abstract universal \u201cprinciples\u201d as \u201chuman rights\u201d and\/or \u201cLiberty\u201d\u2014principles in which they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Neoconservative Ideology and the Mess in Iraq<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/06\/the-neoconservative-ideology-and-the-mess-in-iraq.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Neoconservative Ideology and the Mess in Iraq\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That the vast majority of Republicans remain as committed as ever to a strong American military presence in Iraq has everything to do with the neoconservative ideology that dominates their party. Unlike traditional conservatives, neoconservatives subordinate the contingencies of history and culture to such abstract universal \u201cprinciples\u201d as \u201chuman rights\u201d and\/or \u201cLiberty\u201d\u2014principles in which they…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/06\/the-neoconservative-ideology-and-the-mess-in-iraq.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-26T22:45:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Neoconservative Ideology and the Mess in Iraq","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/06\/the-neoconservative-ideology-and-the-mess-in-iraq.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Neoconservative Ideology and the Mess in Iraq","og_description":"That the vast majority of Republicans remain as committed as ever to a strong American military presence in Iraq has everything to do with the neoconservative ideology that dominates their party. Unlike traditional conservatives, neoconservatives subordinate the contingencies of history and culture to such abstract universal \u201cprinciples\u201d as \u201chuman rights\u201d and\/or \u201cLiberty\u201d\u2014principles in which they…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/06\/the-neoconservative-ideology-and-the-mess-in-iraq.html","og_site_name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","article_published_time":"2014-06-26T22:45:39+00:00","author":"Jack Kerwick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/06\/the-neoconservative-ideology-and-the-mess-in-iraq.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/06\/the-neoconservative-ideology-and-the-mess-in-iraq.html","name":"The Neoconservative Ideology and the Mess in Iraq","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-26T22:45:39+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-26T22:45:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/06\/the-neoconservative-ideology-and-the-mess-in-iraq.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/06\/the-neoconservative-ideology-and-the-mess-in-iraq.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2014\/06\/the-neoconservative-ideology-and-the-mess-in-iraq.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Neoconservative Ideology and the Mess in Iraq"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/","name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jack Kerwick","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5","name":"Jack Kerwick","description":"I have a Ph.D. in philosophy from Temple University, a master's degree in philosophy from Baylor University, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and religious studies from Wingate University. I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1109,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108\/revisions\/1109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}