Phoenix Initiative
When I found out that the Center for a New American Security had a project under way called the “Phoenix Initiative” I was naturally concerned. Is the Democratic Party foreign policy establishment really so crazy as to call for the destruction of the star D’Bari despite the inevitable conflict that will cause with the Shi’ar Empire? Call me an appeaser if you must, but that doesn’t sound like a very good idea to me.
The good news is that based on their report, “Strategic Leadership: Framework for a 21st Century National Security Strategy”, I don’t think they’re actually going to go in that direction. The documents authors are listed as Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bruce W. Jentleson, Ivo H. Daalder, Antony J. Blinken, Lael Brainard, Kurt M. Campbell, Michael A. McFaul, James C. O’Brien, Gayle E. Smith and James B. Steinberg but my understanding is that Susan Rice was also involved at one point before dropping out because she’s so closely involved with the Obama campaign. Thus, it probably gives you a rough sense of what kinds of things an Obama administration foreign policy team will call for.
This is, naturally, not a wildly different document from other things you’ve heard from the big names of the foreign policy center-left but it does include a few noteworthy (and welcome) points, like:
The Iraq war is failing not just because it has been poorly executed. Even in the case of Saddam’s heinous regime, the core objective of overthrowing one government and forcibly creating a new one in its place was fundamentally and fatally flawed.
It’s music to my ears to see the thesis of “The Incompetence Dodge” adopted as quasi-official doctrine by the Democratic establishment. Similarly, “enunciating or embracing a doctrine of preventive war is unnecessary and counterproductive.”
32 Responses to “Phoenix Initiative”
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July 24th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Really rolling with the comic books today, Matt?
I have to know; did you know which star it was that Dark Pheonix ate out of memory or did you have to look it up?
July 24th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Listen, every once in a while America needs to pick up some crappy planet of broccoli people and throw it against the wall to show its power.
July 24th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Really, laundering all those tax dollars into private profits is just so tawdry a subject. Let’s just pretend that everyone had good intentions and go from there, m’kay?
.
July 24th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
D’bari??? Dude, you are a serious comic geek!
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
July 24th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
I love you Matt, but seriously – how many of these sorts of references are you going to make on the day that Morning Joe accused you of being comic book guy? Or is this a part of some larger meta-snark comeback?
July 24th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I love you Matt, but seriously – how many of these sorts of references are you going to make on the day that Morning Joe accused you of being comic book guy? Or is this a part of some larger meta-snark comeback?
July 24th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Love the Phoenix Saga reference! Genius.
July 24th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
It’s a real shame that more of the people who were saying that from the beginning, that the _idea_ of pre-emptive war is fundamentally flawed, aren’t given a little more street cred today. Instead the media, pretty much uniformly, shares its audience with the exact same people who got us into this mess.
Of course, the news is a profit-seeking enterprise, and it does them no good at all to point out their own mistakes.
July 24th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I don’t think Iraq *logically* discredits the idea of pre-emptive war, much as it may *practically* discredit it. There’s too much obvious incompetence to reliably determine whether a competent execution of the preemptive-war doctrine might have achieved a decent outcome.
July 24th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Clearly this an offshoot of work that had been done by a Mr. MacGyver and the Phoenix Foundation.
Democrats have to remember that it is very important that serious people have the authenticity to hotwire “a nonfunctional truck using a paper clip, ballpoint pen, rubber band, tweezers, nasal spray and a turkey baster” and make policy.
July 24th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Democrats are soft on Jean Grey.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
“Was this written in 2006? Do these people not understand we’re currently winning?
As usual, the Reality-Based Community is off in fantasy land somewhere.
Posted by Al | July 24, 2008 1:09 PM”
Do you not realize I have the biggest penis in the world? It’s true cuz I say so and want it to be true.
Argument by assertion is fun!
July 24th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
The forward from Susan Rice might be a tip-off to her role/attitudes towards it.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I had to look up the D’Bari thing — I don’t know that stuff off the top of my head.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
My immediate thought was that they were proposing a program of assassinating neocons. Hmmm … it has its downsides, but the idea has a certain crude appeal …
July 24th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
What downsides? I don’t see any.
July 24th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Those poor, poor broccoli-heads.
July 24th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Those poor, poor broccoli-heads.
July 24th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Obviously, the American right is currently dominated by the Hellfire Club.
Given his propensity for berserker rage, Howard Dean would be Wolverine.
Hillary as Jean Grey makes sense, especially if Bill is Cyclops–not that bad a guy, but nobody’s favorite.
So, their Sinister (Latin for “left”, eh?) plan is to get the Republicans to attack Bill in such a way that it unleashes a cosmic fury from Hillary. She and Dean team up to pack away the Republicans for a few hundred issues, then she goes off and fries the broccoli-heads.
Luckily, none of this reflects poorly on a President Obama.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Matt: “Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bruce W. Jentleson, Ivo H. Daalder, Antony J. Blinken, Lael Brainard, Kurt M. Campbell, Michael A. McFaul, James C. O’Brien, Gayle E. Smith and James B. Steinberg but my understanding is that Susan Rice was also involved at one point before dropping out because she’s so closely involved with the Obama campaign. Thus, it probably gives you a rough sense of what kinds of things an Obama administration foreign policy team will call for.”
Christ on a crutch, what a crew of fucktards.
I once got banned from TPM for calling Daalder an idiot after one of his insipid articles there. And Slaughter is a fucking “Truman Democrat” and a war hawk.
If these morons are advising Obama, we’re in deep shit.
As Thanos would say, “These people adhere to a limited philosophy” – before he blasted them to atoms with his cosmic power.
The Doctor Doom of “Doom 2099″ would have the Punisher execute the lot of them after his invasion of the US, blaming them for the destruction of his native Latveria.
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