Sunday, September 16, 2012

Senor The Savant?



Maureen Dowd writes, in today's New York Times, that the man behind Republican rhetoric these days is Dan Senor, a kid who grew up in Toronto and graduated from the University of Western Ontario. If you listen to what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are saying about the Middle East, you might wonder what Senor learned from the time he lived in Canada:

The hawkish Romney adviser has been secunded to manage the running mate and graft a Manichaean worldview onto the foreign affairs neophyte.

A moral, muscular foreign policy; a disdain for weakness and diplomacy; a duty to invade and bomb Israel’s neighbors; a divine right to pre-emption — it’s all ominously familiar.

You can draw a direct line from the hyperpower manifesto of the Project for the New American Century, which the neocons, abetted by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, used to prod an insecure and uninformed president into invading Iraq — a wildly misguided attempt to intimidate Arabs through the shock of overwhelming force. How’s that going for us? 

If there is one thing that is true of the Republicans, it is that the last decade has taught them  nothing. And, from North of the 49th parallel, it appears that -- even though as a child Senor moved Utica, New York to Toronto -- his stay in Canada didn't take.

10 comments:

Lorne said...

Owen, given the American belief in exceptionalism, I suspect that many of them feel that the rest of the world has absolutely nothing to teach them, a sad and dangerous example of national hubris if there ever was one.

Owen Gray said...

Whether for nations or individuals, Lorne, believing that one is exceptionally brilliant, courageous, or gifted is folly.

It may be true that some people are any or all of those things. But believing that you are exceptional is the sure path to self destruction.

Beijing York said...

"A moral, muscular foreign policy; a disdain for weakness and diplomacy; a duty to invade and bomb Israel’s neighbors; a divine right to pre-emption..."

Are we sure he's not moonlighting in Ottawa?

Owen Gray said...

The thought has occurred to me, Bejiing. Surely, Harper can't be winging it on his own. Or could he?

The Mound of Sound said...

Senor is a full-blown Likkudnik like the other PNAC neo-cons. He sticks with the hard-line pro-Israel/anti-Muslim agenda.

Senor & Company are part of the gang of influence peddlars the American intelligence community bemoaned in a recent report.

If you haven't seen it yet, you should read this report.

http://www.countercurrents.org/lamb280812.htm

Owen Gray said...

Thanks for the link, Mound. It sounds like the Obama administration has its ear to the ground.

American Republicans have been tone deaf on the Middle East for a long while.

Stephen Harper has always been deaf to anyone who does not let him sit at the piano and sing the song of his choice.

Anonymous said...

Hubris is terminal.

Owen Gray said...

True. Unfortunately, it's terminal for others, not just those who carry the disease.

ChrisJ said...

And of course, war makes lots of money for some (Cheney and Haliburton). Oh gosh, would that be too cynical!?!

Owen Gray said...

Not at all, Chris. Sometimes the cynics are the ones who see exactly what is happening.