…It is this power structure which the Radical Right in the US has been attacking for years in the belief that they were attacking the Communists.[1]
When Professor Carroll Quigley, the eminent Harvard historian, wrote those words in 1966 he was referring to a “network” (sic) of plutocrats largely centered around the Council on Foreign Relations. Since then this “network” has increased exponentially into a vast, interlocking apparatus that has the ability to bring down regimes by manipulating those who believe themselves to be shaping a new and more humane future.
This international subversive apparatus would have turned the old Bolsheviks of the Comintern[2] red with envy. Indeed, when things turned sour for bolshevism with the advent of Stalin, many Marxists joined forces with America in the Cold War via such institutions as the Congress for Cultural Freedom, attracting sundry Bolsheviks, ex-Bolsheviks, Trots, pro-Marxists, crypto-Marxists and social democrats.[3]
From out of the Cold War emerged organizations committed to spreading the “American Dream” throughout the world in the formation of a “new world order.”[4] The eclipse of the Soviet bloc provided an opportunity for this “new world order” to be created, but there remained the Islamic world, the danger of the resurgence of nationalism and traditionalism in the former Soviet bloc states, and other regimes that are regarded as anachronistic roadblocks in creating a “new world order.” One of these was Serbia under Milosevic, who wished to retain state control over the mineral rich region of Kosovo.[5]
When eliminating Milosevic the use of “Muslim terrorists” was considered expedient by the USA, and the Kosovo Liberation Army went from being listed as a heroin-pushing “terrorist organization” by the US State Department, to being noble freedom fighters.[6] They were an example of “good Muslims,” just as bin Laden was a “good Muslim” when he was needed to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.
“Neo-conservatism” also emerged out of the Cold War. The term is a misnomer, however. Neo-conservatism is neither “new” nor “conservative.” There is nothing conservative about the “neocons” (a more apt term). The version of “American tradition” advocated by the neocons is that of global Americanization, Sen. McCain stating the doctrine in 2007 as President of the International Republican Institute:
The promotion of freedom is the most authentic expression of our national character. To accept the abridgement of those rights for other societies should be no less false to the American heart than to accept their abridgment in our own society.[7]
The American tradition was to keep out of foreign entanglements,[8] which was reiterated by the “isolationists.”
Neocons are antithetical to “palaeoconservatives” such as Prof. Paul Gottfried,[9] the late Joe Sobran, Pat Buchanan, et al, who are opposed to American globalism and interference in the affairs of other states. They and politicians such as Ron Paul stand for the traditional American outlook. Neocons are the ideological heirs to Wilsonian internationalism, and his revolutionary manifesto of The Fourteen Points, which in the aftermath of World War I sought to create a new international order based on American hegemony, via the League of Nations, just as the same stunt was tried in the aftermath of World War II by the USA via the United Nations Organization, but was squashed by the intransigence of Stalin.[10]
Indeed the position of palaeoconservatism contra the neocons was cogently expressed by the recently deceased columnist Joe Sobran when he stated that:
Anti-Americanism is no longer a mere fad of Marxist university students; it’s a profound reaction of traditional societies against a corrupt and corrupting modernization that is being imposed on them, by both violence and seduction. The very word values implies a whole modern culture of moral whim, in which good and evil are matters of personal preference and sodomy and abortion can be treated as “rights.” Confronted with today’s America, then, the Christian Arab finds himself in unexpected sympathy with his Muslim enemy.[11]
It should not be too difficult to see – if one can think beyond the mass media hype – that the “color revolutions” and the “spontaneous revolts” that have taken place, and are now taking place in the Arab world, have not arisen from “traditional Christian and Muslim Arabs” in a revolt against Americanization and capitalist moral nihilism, as per the statement by Sobran, but rather arose among bourgeois secular youth under the long-term influence of American globalists. Whether the current revolts will be captured by Arab traditionalists and turned into a genuine liberation movement against Americanization remains to be seen.
Genuine stirrings against global Americanization referred to by Sobran constitute the major roadblock to the “new world order,” whether as regimes such as those of Iran or as grass roots phenomena such as the re-emergence of nationalism and traditionalist movements in the former Soviet bloc states, wishing to revive what American globalists consider to be anachronistic ideas, such as those of religion, ethnic identity and nationalism. Against these they postulate a counter-idealism, concentrating on the youth generation, in the same manner by which the American Establishment sought to co-opt and experiment with American youth via the “New Left” during the 1960s.[12]
The American Establishment, or – if you prefer – what Eisenhower in his presidential “farewell” speech called the “military-industrial complex,”[13] seeks to direct the emergence of revolutionary and reform movements throughout the world, albeit presented by media and political commentators as rebelling against America. Hence the present phenomena of “revolt” that has “spontaneously” (sic) swept North Africa, with the public being simplistically told that this is causing the fall of “pro-American dictators.” As I have previously pointed out, the “spontaneous revolts” in Egypt and Tunisia, for example, portrayed with such unrestrained enthusiasm by the Western news media, are the culmination of years of planning, training, networking, and funding “activists,” following exactly the same pattern as that seen in the “color revolutions” of the former Soviet bloc states.[14] A far-reaching network of interlocking organizations has emerged, funded in part by the US Government, and in part by corporate sources, to foment “world revolution.”
International Republican Institute (IRI)
The IRI is a neocon version of the Comintern. Its by-line is “Advancing Democracy Worldwide” (even if you don’t want their version of it, and then that’s when the bombs start landing). The creation of IRI was supposedly inspired by the words of President Ronald Reagan, who in 1982 called for a “crusade for freedom” throughout the world, stating before the British Parliament that America’s version of democracy, and one might add its concomitant versions of culture[15] and economics, is “the inalienable and universal right of all human beings.” Like Communism, it provides ideological justification for interference in the life sovereign nations, including ultimately the use of force as per Serbia and Iraq.
IRI states that Reagan provided the ideological impetus for the formation in 1983 of the National Endowment for Democracy (which helps fund IRI) to “support democrats worldwide.” This led to a network of fronts: National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Center for International Private Enterprise, and the American Center for International Labor Solidarity.[16]
Dr. Bolton clearly does not understand IRI or NDI’s work, but one wonders if he really even wants to. IRI and NDI do not export a version of democracy, they support reformers who are trying to strengthen or establish democracy in their own country. Why does Dr. Bolton find supporting those who want to be free so objectionable?
Freedom to do what – produce – consume – borrow, and get bombed if you don’t like it.
“…Support reformers…” – I thought the “revolts” were supposed to be “spontaneous”?
Most regimes say they want “democracy” including North Korea. The junk that vomits forth from the USA in the name of “democracy” is not something to emulate.
The essay has already been read and received an enthusiastic response from individuals who are very well placed to “understand” what’s going on.
Take taxpayer dollars and deploy them in Venezuela to help prepare a coup against Chavez. That’s exactly what these organization did prior to (and for all we are allowed to know) after April 2002.
Good article. Many of the old leftists-progressives-libs-Marxists-Socialists-Leninists-Stalinists-Trotskyites-Maoists moved over into the environmentalist movements and are now some of the loudest voices in the Global Warming Alarmist crowd. Their ultimate desire appears to be the imposition of a Global Carbon Tax which will be paid in to the UN, World Bank, or IMF.
Professor Bolton excellently interprets the current Arab revolt not as from “traditional Christian and Muslim Arabs” revolting against Americanization, but rather from bourgeois secular youth under the long-term influence and training of American globalists. I must now credit Professor Bolton’s cynical reference to “spontaneous revolt,” while now strongly suspecting that the globalists have lost control of what has become an actually spontaneous popular nationalist AND STILL UNCOORDIANATED uprising against the American proxy. If this is so, might the maze of coordinated interest groups jostling for advantage have been radically confused and forced to compromise? But what a brilliant survey. It ends, “It remains to be seen whether the “revolution” will backfire on the plutocrats.”
Excellent analysis Dr. Bolton; unfortunately I truly feel the movements/revolts that pose obstacles to the Globalist agenda will be easily mitigated.
The efforts by Egypt’s opposition front – most notably the Muslim Brotherhood will be hindered by conventional concerns of instability in the region (Israel) with Mubarak’s swift departure .
Perhaps the IRI and NDI should attempt to support the reformers in the U.S., who strive to be governed by the principles that were laid forth in the Constitution.
The nationalization of the Fed should be the foremost priority of the IRI et al, as governance by this xenophobic Central Bank that is hell bent on the demise of the American economy through the utilization of fiat currency traverses the spirit of democratic rule.
Rule One in Writing: Omit needless words.