Lionel Nation clarifies that neoconservatives, coined by Leo Strauss and including former communists like John Podhoretz, differ from mere war profiteers by actively seeking to spread democracy through U.S. power rather than adopting isolationist "America first" policies. While distinguishing figures like John McCain from the movement, Nation links the Project for a New American Century's desire for a new Pearl Harbor to the 9-11 attacks, arguing that despite their liberal-sounding prefix, these thinkers embrace war as a tool for ideological expansion, fundamentally reshaping how we understand modern American foreign policy motivations. [Automatically generated summary]
Now, remember, I don't want to bore you with this.
A neocon is not necessarily the same as someone who is a war profiteer.
There are people who are into war and military because that's their money base.
When they get out of office, that's where they're on boards of defense, money, death.
The two are connected.
That's not a neocon, necessarily.
There are other people, too, it has been suggested, who want there to be war for reasons of other countries, for other bases, problems.
And it's not necessarily Israel, could be for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Gulf states.
There are other people as well.
That's not a neocon, though all of them might be in support of war.
Neoconservatism is a special term of art.
And I would venture to say most people are not neocons.
Neocon was a term that was used, pretty much coined by University of Chicago professor Leo Strauss.
He is the granddaddy of them all.
And a lot of the neocons were lapsed Trotsky's.
Most of them were ex-commies.
John Pedoritz, I mean, Ermine Crystal, Pedoritz, Scoop Jackson.
Remember him?
Scoop Jackson Democrats.
This was a Democrat.
He was a rather bellicose, you know, Peanak project for a new American century.
These are people who believe that the United States or any power, that we should use our power, our might, our glory, our greatness, not to necessarily be kind and peaceful and loving, but to go on and spread the good word and to tell people what needs to be done, especially regarding goodness and power and democracy.
They mean go out and do this.
Don't wait to be attacked.
War has nothing to do with being attacked.
War has nothing to do with anybody who hurts us.
America first.
None of that stuff.
It means here's the world and we're going to go in and we're going to make it a better place.
And we're going to go here.
And PENAC, Project for a New American Century.
Read this.
They say, what we need is a new Pearl Harbor.
And what happened?
9-11.
They're still here.
They're still here.
But John McCain and these people, Lindsey Graham, those aren't neoconservatives at all.
Neoconservatives, remember, whenever you see the word neo, like neo-it's the opposite.
Neoconservative is almost like a liberal because they want to go out and spread this through war.