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Flynt Leverett: Neocon Fellow Travelers in Democratic Party and Comments on Georgia-Russia War
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At 4:56 in this 9 minute clip from Countdown with Keith Olbermann, New America Foundation Geopolitics of Energy Initiative Director Flynt Leverett offers grown-up commentary on the presidential campaign responses to the Georgia-Russia War.
Leverett, making reference to yesterday's Richard Holbrooke-Ron Asmus Washington Post article on the conflict, suggests that the Democratic Party has some key fellow travelers of the neoconservative moment.
It's a fascinating clip that's worth the time.
-- Steve Clemons
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Reader Comments (9) - post a comment
I'm glad people like you and Flynt are out there making this sort of argument.
One thing your readers outside Washington should be mindful of is that this is a very cautious season here in DC -- where a substantial percentage of the population in this neighborhood, within a few blocks of Dupont Circle (ie the think tank district...), is inclined to avoid saying anything controversial for fear of making a stumble that would blackball them for an appointed or staff job in the Obama administration. I've had conversations with several people along these same general lines recently, but very few people would have the courage to go on a talking heads segment on MSNBC and say this...
that moment on the clip is hilarious! another bush moment...
t's been obvious for a long time that there are neos in the Dem party.
Particulary when it comes to the ME and the Green Peril....there they are the same as the repubs
I saw Flynt Leverete on MSNBC... he made so much sense it hurt.. why isn't he an Obama advisor?
oops, typo, Leverett
Well Kathleen, a cynical person might be tempted to respond to your query 'it is BECAUSE he makes sense...and is not peddling campaign pablum that he is not an Obama adviser"
Soo true/tragic...
He really is a fantastic analyst. A great hire indeed for the New
America Foundation.
I think one of the more troubling arguments that we're hearing
in all of this is the one that goes...if Georgia had been a member
of NATO then none of this would have ever happened. Given the
leadership questions in Russia, such an assumption is
enormously dangerous. Let us postulate for a moment that
following the Georgia offensive into S.O. Vladimir Putin decides
that it is not in Russia's interests to fight against a NATO
member. Can we definitively say that Mr. Medvedev would follow
Mr. Putin's lead? A new President of Russia, universally viewed as
a puppet of Mr. Putin with the Russian populace crying for blood
and a military that is itching for a fight...No, I don't think that
one could reasonably conclude that such a result would certainly
take place...assuming Mr. Putin didn't immediately order an
invasion himself.
Had Western Europe not 86'd Georgian membership in NATO,
either the alliance would be no more, or the United States might
touch off World War III. I pray that following all of this, we do not
try and spite Russia by handing Georgia an Article V
commitment.
The myth of American exceptionalism is over.
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