Apparently, it takes the prospect of ending the war on Iran to get the blood running hot in aging and otherwise reclusive neoconservatives — particularly those whose tenures as key architects of the 2003 Iraq invasion and subsequent occupation were both short-lived and disastrous.
Douglas Feith, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy (2001-2005), and Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s powerful national security adviser and chief of staff (2001-2005), co-authored an op-ed published Monday by the Washington Post entitled “’Endless wars’ is a catchy phrase, not a reason to shift policy.”
Evoking the wartime steadfastness demonstrated by Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War; Winston Churchill – naturally, these are neoconservatives, after all — against the Nazis, Dwight Eisenhower in Korea; and Ronald Reagan in concluding the Cold War, the duo urged America to steel itself for more war.
“None of these leaders wanted endless sacrifice and risks, but none buckled for fear of them,” they wrote, suggesting a parallel with the current war on Iran. “Each understood that an enemy’s willingness to endure a long struggle does not make one’s own ‘endless’ resistance foolish.”
In assessing the wisdom behind their words, some context may be in order.
First, the authors, both proteges of the “Prince of Darkness,” Richard Perle, who served as chairman of the Defense Policy Board in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, are dyed-in-the-wool, hard-core neoconservatives in that they believe as much, or perhaps more, in Israel’s exceptionalism as they do in America’s. Their Middle East policy preferences have long paralleled those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud Party...
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