Such men are dangerous ...

Only on Sunday, posting to Slugger O'Toole (Jun 28, 2009 @ 06:13 PM), Malcolm drew attention to the neo-cons of the Henry Jackson Society. Then he was referring to:

that well-known lefty (no, strike that one: this is now) neo-con, Paul Bew.

Well, as several lyricists have noted, here it comes again.

This time in a very scary article by Neil Clarke, on The First Post.

Inevitably Clarke eventually probes the sleazy mire that has been the single focus of British politics these last weeks: one neo-con (the Hon. Ed Vaizey, Tory Shadow for "Culture") bought antique furniture from the mother-in-law, Lady Annabel Astor, of another (David Cameron), and charged it to parliamentary expenses.

Before that, Clarke clocks in with a remarkable interpretation: that Cameron's enstoolment as Tory leader was engineered to defeat the anti-war elements in the Tory Party:

... the neocon faction within the party started to champion the cause of a young, relatively little known MP for Witney, promoting him as the man who would 'modernise' the party and lead it back to power. The strategy worked a treat, and the little known MP - David Cameron - pulled off a surprise victory.

Cameron's campaign was masterminded by a triumvirate of MPs: Michael Gove, Ed Vaizey and George Osborne.

Gove, who believes the invasion of Iraq was a "proper British foreign policy success", is the author of the polemic Celsius 7/7, which has been described as a "neo-con rallying cry" for its attacks on Islamism, which he describes as a "totalitarian ideology" on a par with Nazism and Communism, and says must be fiercely opposed.

He, along with Vaizey, is a signatory to the principles of the ultra-hawkish Henry Jackson Society, an organisation founded at Peterhouse College Cambridge in 2005 and named after a warmongering US Senator who opposed détente with the Soviet Union.

Furthermore:

Cameron has been closely protective of this leadership cadre:

Gove, the Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, who was described by the Daily Mail's political commentator Peter Oborne as "one of the most notorious milkers of the expenses system", for spending thousands furnishing his London home before 'flipping' to a new property and claiming £13,000 in moving costs, came under no pressure from Cameron to stand down. He is likely to play a major role in the next Conservative government.

So too will fellow flipper George Osborne ...

Well, that states the case clearly enough.

There are two possible interpretations here.

One is that Clarke has a hopelessly bee-infested barnet. Malcolm instantly suspects anyone with a publicly-declared penchant for horse-racing may be a snaffle short in the tack-room.

Alternatively, even allowing for a distant rustle of men in white coats, Clarke is on to something.

Putting one's name on a list of sponsors, or signing up to a statement of principles, as these adherents of the Henry Jackson Society have done, invites guilt-by-association. Yet, the connection also merits due consideration.

The prime motive of the HJS is the spreading of a single political agenda world-wide (which, of itself, smacks of being repressive, colonialist, even one-size-fits-all imperialist):

…that liberal democracy should be spread across the world; that as the world's most powerful democracies, the United States and the European Union—under British leadership—must shape the world more actively by intervention and example; that such leadership requires political will. a commitment to universal human rights and the maintenance of a strong military with global expeditionary reach; and that too few of our leaders in Britain and the rest of Europe today are ready to play a role in the world that matches our strength.

Doncha just lurve that "under British leadership" bit? And the blatant Jingoism of "a strong military" with a "global expeditionary reach"?

The HJS, it has to be admitted, has several marks of the nut-house.

A recent posting on the HJS website saw Hillary Clinton in the context of A vast left-wing conspiracy. Another, Guns 'n' Ammo, lamented that:

a pastor in the state of Kentucky has asked his congregation to bring their handguns to the Sunday services in an effort to promote gun safety.

This was misguided simply because:

episodes like this will only serve to deepen suspicion of religious institutions and alienate the gun-bearing demographic from mainstream society.

Oh, and Israel was bang-on bombing the hell out of Gaza: a one-tonne bomb on an apartment building, slaughtering eleven children, is Israel's right, arguably a duty.

Somewhere in there, we are not surprised, was an article assuming that the "mission" in the Middle East would not be complete without Iran being:

compelled by an unrelenting international community to act in accordance with international law and diplomatic norms.

Those are Malcolm's emphases: the previous paragraph had demanded that

Europe and the U.S. need to make much clearer ... that Iran has a choice in this matter. It can continue on its path of self-isolation and belligerence ... or it can cooperate and engage to its benefit... Lax responses from the leaders of the free world only work to facilitate these pursuits; they leave the West with nothing with which to hold over Iran’s head to force compliance with international law and diplomatic norms.

In other words, send the gun-boats. Or the gun-ships. Or the B2 bombers (Jackson, the "whore for Boeing" would approve of that). Dammit: send the lot. It's all in the interests of "world peace"; and, in this misguided, introverted demi-monde, it's not a great distance from Tacitus' thing about desert/peace to Jackson's "The best politics is no politics".

Here's another gem from the HJS which Malcolm cannot resist:

Simply because DDT is a close cousin of Agent Orange does not make it dangerous any more than the air we breathe is harmful because it contains oxygen, which alone is lethal.

Which, of course, is just another fault to be laid at the door of those lefty wimps, who haven't sprayed DDT across the African continent:

... if healthcare is such a worldwide concern, shouldn’t that rising tide lift all boats? When will Barack Obama decide to become his half-brother’s keeper?

Let's bring in one more clown: any chance those "liberal democrats"of the HJS might ponder the origins of their Irish associate? Anthony Mcintyre was a Provo, eighteen years in the Kesh, and resigned only when Sinn Féin signed up to the Good Friday Agreement. With friends like that ...

Noble Romans and well-given?

Malcolm's header for this piece is from Julius Caesar's speech to Antony in Act I, scene ii. It concludes with:

Such men as he be never at heart's ease
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous...
Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,
And tell me truly what thou think'st of him.

Notice: "on my right hand".

The HJS, too, is largely deaf on the other.

Moreover, Caesar is proven correct.
Antony. shrugging off the threat, gets it spectacularly wrong. Sphere: Related Content