The neocons are relentless. When one of their plans fails, they simply double down.

Take their signature invasion of Iraq to eliminate weapons of mass destruction. Of course, there were no weapons, but never mind. They got rid of Saddam and stood poised to remake Iraq into a free-market utopia. There was just one little problem. When Saddam was overthrown, and the Sunni/Bathist party he controlled turfed out of power, the winners were the Iraqi Shia and their sponsors, Iran.

Oops!

Compounding the problem was the fact that this had created a “Shia Crescent” ranging from Iran through Iraq to Syria onward to Lebanon, where the Shia militia–Hezbullah–had fought the Israeli Defense Force to a standstill in 2006.

This brings us to the elephant in the room–Israel. The neoconservatives are a small group of ideologues. Most are allied with Israel. Some are dual-citizens. Since the late 1970’s the neoconservatives have  created an ideology of American world hegemony, specifying that the chief goal of US foreign policy is to prevent the rise of any other power that could check US unilateralism. Since the neoconservatives control US foreign policy, this explains US hostility toward Russia and China, and the wars and regime-change operations aimed at governments in the Middle East regarded by Israel as obstacles to Israeli expansion. For two decades the US has been fighting wars for Israel in the Middle East. If all this sounds suspiciously like the Oded Yinon Plan, don’t worry your pretty little head, I’m sure it’s all a crazy coincidence.

The Israeli connection helps understand the recent neocon hostility towards Iran, Syria and Lebanon. Essentially, because the neocons failed to comprehend the political fallout of overthrowing Saddam; now Syria, Lebanon, then Iran must be attacked to eliminate the “Shia Crescent”. Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh’s  groundbreaking 2007 article–The Redirection, explains how the neocons doubled down on a crazy scheme to work with Al Qaeda as way of striking Shia power across the Middle-East.

When the Arab Spring riots gave the neocons the pretext to foment regime change in Syria they seized the opportunity by funding, arming and training their Sunni terrorist proxies, in a genocidal civil war that still rages. Once dismissed as a baseless conspiracy theory, it is now a known and admitted fact that the US has been arming Al Qaeda terrorist factions in Syria to advance its ongoing regime change operations.

With the East Ghouta chemical weapons attack, blamed on Syrian President Bashar Assad, the neocons thought they had found the pretext to force President Obama to bomb Syria. However, when their planned bombing campaign was stymied in 2013 by Russia’s mediation and disposal of Syrian chemical weapons, the neocons doubled down and turned their sights to Ukraine, where they fomented a coup to punish Russia.

In my opinion, this is the essential backstory to Russia-gate.

When Trump, on the campaign trail, promised to reset relations with Russia the neocons doubled down with allegations of Trump’s collusion with Putin to force Trump into continued hostilities with Russia. Essentially, Trump was violating traditional policy of relying on force to overcome all obstacles or what Obama nicknamed “The Washington Playbook”

While the neocons are the gang that can’t shoot straight in their overseas adventures, at home their control of the political space is unmatched. Neocon foreign policies are US ones. Trump continues the trend.

The neocon record for destruction is impressive. Not only have their policies destroyed Ukraine, and destroyed Syria, and, before that, destroyed Libya, and destroyed Iraq, and destroyed Afghanistan, but they are always on the lookout for more countries to destroy. If you wonder why America is increasingly unpopular throughout the world, these neocon driven foreign policies are a good place to start.

No matter. Being a neocon means never being sorry, or suffering from your catastrophic mistakes.

Since there is no accountability for their fuck-ups, they continue their reign of destruction. In fact, they still haven’t given up their plan of regime change in Syria. If two fake chemical weapon attacks don’t do the trick, try a third with the added secret-sauce allegation that these chemical weapons will be soon aimed at the US. “A U.S. official says Syrian President Assad’s forces may be developing new types of chemical weapons, which could reach as far as the U.S.” 

Don’t laugh. Remember how the specter of Saddam’s chemical weapons crop dusters aimed at the American heartland helped drive the invasion of Iraq?

And, if the fake chemical weapons gambit fails, have your Al Qaeda terrorist proxies shoot down a Russian fighter with the MANPADS you supplied.

In the homeland, the neocons are doubling down on the Dr. Strangelove level crazy with the latest Nuclear Posture Review. It names Russia, along with China, North Korea and Iran, as potential threats and calls for an expansion of the US nuclear arsenal. It recommends the development of a range of new weapons that could be used in situations other than full-scale nuclear war, effectively undermining agreements to wind back nuclear arsenals. Indeed, the Trump administration has just announced that it is restructuring its nuclear weapons policy to take a more aggressive stance toward Russia than that which was held by the previous administration.

This plan to spend trillions of dollars on nuclear weapons is a direct threat to the American people. Not only will this plan greatly increase the likelihood of nuclear war but with all the challenges facing our country we need trillions of dollars of new nuclear weapons like we need a hole in our head.

The neocons have learned nothing from their past failures. They dream of restoring US power to what it once was and do not understand that this can no longer be done.

French diplomat Talleyrand had the best description of these types of people “They had learned nothing and forgotten nothing.”