Right-wing think tanks linked to political power in the United States were the recipe for the global war on terror. Now history seems to be repeating itself as Britain heads for a general election and a new generation of war-mongers looks set to assume office. Very few people had heard of neoconservatism when George W Bush came to power in 2000.Yet over the next 8 years the word became associated with some of the most ruthless, war-mongering and blood thirsty colonial policies the world had ever seen.
What is Neoconservatism?
Neoconservatism is a political philosophy within secular and capitalist thought. It was first postulated in the years after World War 2 by the political thinker Leo Strauss. Its most significant aspect is that it believes in using economic and military power of the State to bring liberalism, democracy, and the western way of life to other countries.
But one of the most striking things about this political thought is that its founder indoctrinated some of his students with these ideas, and over the decades the views found a foothold within political think tanks, and eventually into mainstream US politicians.
Neocons in the US
Before the election won by George W Bush, the think tank called the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) launched a mission statement which is noteworthy because many of the signatories became associated with the Bush administration.
PNAC said that “The history of the past century should have taught us to embrace the cause of American leadership” and it aimed to establish four core missions for the US military including to “defend the American homeland; fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars; perform the “constabulary” duties associated with shaping the security environment in critical regions; transform U.S. forces to exploit the “revolution in military affairs”
Signatories and contributors to significant documents and reports included “Jeb” Bush (the President’s brother and Governor of Florida), Richard Armitage (former Deputy Secretary of State), Zalmay Khalilzad (former US Ambassador to UN, Iraq and Afghanistan), Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby (Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff), Richard Perle (Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 2001 to 2003) and Donald Rumsfeld (former Defence Secretary).
This think tank was by no means unique in Washington.The Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Nixon Centre and the Hudson Institute have all been associated with this strand of thinking. However, ultimately it was this think tank that had the strongest links to people within the government.
Generally, all these right-wing think tanks and politicians created the political opinion that eventually translated into policies that included:
-The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan
-The invasion and occupation of Iraq
-The founding of Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for ‘enemy combatants’ without rights
-The use of torture by the CIA and the outsourcing of torture to secret locations around the world, known as extraordinary rendition
-The launch of the global war on terror For these reasons, the word ‘neocon’ became a despised word across the world, including amongst many ordinary citizens of Europe and America who have become war-weary and regret the seizing of power by these arrogant and aggressive politicians who caused so much bloodshed and chaos.
Neoconservatism in Britain
Despite the fall in support for this strand of thinking in America, in Britain a curious thing has happened almost unnoticed by the general public.An almost identical process to that in the US has led to right-wing neoconservative thinking dominating a political party – this time the British Conservative (or Tory) Party. The Tory party lost the 1997 UK General Election and was in disarray for some years after. However, in 2005 there was a leadership election which was won by David Cameron, supported by a coterie of ‘young turks’ who seized the political vacuum caused by the divisions in the party.These Cameron supporters, known as the ‘Notting Hill set’ (because they live in Notting Hill – the same London locality as Cameron), include Michael Gove MP, George Osborne MP and Ed Vaizey MP – all of whom are known as supporters of neoconservatism.
Some of these politicians, most notably Gove, strongly supported their opponent former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in his pro-war anti-terror policies and wars of pre-emption.
Gove was a former director of a British right-wing think tank called the Policy Exchange, now infamous for producing anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic reports.This think-tank, which has strong links to David Cameron, issued a pamphlet in 2007 called ‘The Hijacking of British Islam: How Extremist Literature is Subverting Mosques in the UK’ by Denis MacEoin. It claimed to be ‘the most comprehensive academic survey of such literature ever produced in this country’ but was later exposed as being so flawed the Policy Exchange have even removed it from their website.
Gove is also the author of the book Celsius 7/7, a book that led to many feeling that he harboured a hostile attitude towards Islam and Muslims.The respected historian and author William Dalrymple, when reviewing the book, said it was a “confused epic of simplistic incomprehension”.The book’s cover jacket boasted that Gove was a leading writer and thinker on terrorism, but Dalrymple challenged his qualifications on this statement saying “Throughout Gove’s book, neocon myths are reheated and served up, despite being long discredited, most recently by the 2005 CIA report just released by the Senate Committee on Intelligence. Saddam, believes Gove,“invited Islamists into Iraq”; was “determined to pursue his WMD programme” and “dreamt of emulating” 9/11, strongly suggesting the central lie of Saddam’s non-existent links with 9/11.”
Gove, together with Ed Vaizey MP (a Cameron ally), is a supporter to the Henry Jackson Society – a UK based think tank that shares neocon principles, and whose other supporters also include Michael Ancram MP (a former Conservative frontbencher), David Willetts MP (part of Cameron’s Shadow Cabinet team), David Trimble (who sits on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords), as well as Sir Richard Dearlove — former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service. Other supporters for this Society include the American economist Irwin Stelzer – known to be close to media magnate Rupert Murdoch – a Cameron supporter – and Richard Perle and William Kristol two of the signatories to the Project for the New American Century.
The Henry Jackson Society’s statement of principles originally argue a “‘forward strategy’ to assist those countries that are not yet liberal and democratic to become so” involving “diplomatic, economic, cultural or political” policies as ‘carrots’ but also “those ‘sticks’ of the military domain.” It also “supports the maintenance of a strong military, by the United States, the countries of the European Union and other democratic powers”. Like PNAC it fosters a western supremacist viewpoint saying that “that only modern liberal democratic states are truly legitimate”.
Cameron’s Neocon Credentials
David Cameron has very deliberately manufactured a media image as a moderate, centrist and liberal politician. He has tried to distance himself from neoconservatism calling himself a ‘liberal conservative’. However, this image cultivated by media advisors and spin doctors has not deceived everyone.
On the 26th November 2005 the Spectator magazine carried an article entitled:“Now Cameron is positioning himself as the heir to George W. Bush” whilst the Guardian newspaper has published an opinion piece titled “Cameron is no moderate”. Political writer David Morrison, writing before Cameron’s leadership success, wrote about ‘David Cameron: Blair Mark II’ citing his support for the Iraq war, and exposing the neocon ties of his closest supporters Gove, Osborne and Vaizey. George Osborne, who is Shadow Chancellor and a school friend of Cameron’s, once hailed the ‘excellent neo-conservative case’ for action against Iraq and that he was a ’signed-up, card-carrying Bush fan’!
His current spokesman for Home Affairs Chris Grayling gave key speech on terrorism to the US think tank the Heritage Foundation. In 2003 Douglas J. Feith – former under Secretary of Defence in the Bush administration said that “The Heritage Foundation helped created the alliance of the neocons”.
Grayling showed his true colours when he criticised the decision of former Home Secretary Jackie Smith to ban Michael Savage from the UK – the American talk-show host who was once quoted as saying Muslims “need deportation”, and that adherents of Islam would do well to “take your religion and shove it up your behind” because “I’m sick of you.” Also, Cameron’s new defence advisor retired General Sir Richard Dannatt, echoed Bush and Blair making an attack on the Caliphate, whilst Cameron’s Shadow Defence Minister Liam Fox, wrote a belligerent war-mongering article against Iran in the Times newspaper on 1st January 2010.
Cameron’s Neoconservative anti-Muslim Policies
As time has gone on there have been clearer examples of Cameron’s and the Conservative’s hostile attitudes towards Muslims.These include a recent attack on Muslim schools; repeated calls to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir (a non-violent but strong voice opposing colonial foreign policy); arguing – like Blair – that Muslims have false grievances and a sense of victimhood; a pro-Iraq war policy; a policy that would escalate Britain’s foothold in Afghanistan and Pakistan; escalating the war rhetoric on Iran; and a policy that even describes some integrationist Muslim groups as ‘extremist’!
Cameron, described himself as a Zionist in 2007 and once said his belief in Israel is ‘very deep and inside of me’ and ‘indestructible’. In 2009 when addressing a gathering of the Conservative Friends of Israel in the aftermath of Israel’s massacres in Gaza, described by the UN as war crimes, Cameron went out of his way to praise Israel because it “strives to protect innocent life”.
Conclusion
Cameron and his party appear to be manoeuvring their way to power on a moderate ticket. But there are all the signs that they will pursue a foreign policy and Muslim policies every bit as aggressive as Bush’s Neocons or Tony Blair. People should realise that they will continue to mask their true face until they feel they have safely won moderate opinion in Britain and secured power, very much as their predecessors Bush and Blair did over a decade before.Those who hoped for peace after so much war, or stability after so much chaos will have to put up with yet more masters of war in positions of power.
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http://www.khilafah.eu/kmag/article/britai...%80%99s-neocons
