The next-war talk seems to me to have cooled off considerably, once the bullying of Syria petered out.
I think neo-cons are lackeys of Bush, not masters. He uses them to paint pictures, not make policy. I don't think Bush, Cheney, or Rumsfeld are neo-cons. They have no compunctions about using force indiscriminantly, but their vision is much narrower and pragmatic than the neo-cons.
I hypothesize that they would like to control the world's oil resources, but they don't feel the need to conquer and remake nations. They really don't dig nation-building, even at this date. The only difference is they need to pretend they do as compensation for blowing up Afgh and Iraq.
Bush talks enough of the talk to keep the Christian zionists in his camp (they have nowhere else to go), while basically hewing to a hard-line version of the 'realists' doctrine (Kissinger, Daddy Bush, etc.).
If there's another war, it will only be as a knee-jerk response to another terrorist outrage.
One factor is that the US military is too short-handed to do much more than they're doing now. A massive manpower expansion or a draft would send up enormous red flags, so to speak, and K. Rove ain't that stupid.
Bush's problem is at some point it dawns on people we're in an unwinnable pair of guerilla wars. The lack of an 'exit scenario' undermines the basis for going in in the first place.
mbs
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-admin at lbo-talk.org]On Behalf Of Michael Pollak Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 4:31 PM To: lbo-talk Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] neocons fading?
On Mon, 16 Jun 2003, Newsweek was quoted:
> Newsweek - June 23, 2003
>
> The Mideast: Neocons on the Line A growing number of critics on Capitol
> Hill and around the world are questioning the Bush administration's
> credibility-and its assumptions-as never before.
>
> By Michael Hirsh
Fwiw, Michael Hirsh is a leading representative of the Clinton wing of the Council on Foreign Relations. He writes fairly regularly in _Foreign Affairs_.
Michael ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk