The uses of Arab rage
An astoundingly deep piece by Joshua Micah Marshall, author of the Talking Points Memo. He's critical of the neo-conservative case for Iraq, but is fair enough to represent it sympathetically. The most generous parallel: with Roosevelt, who egged Japan and Germany into a war that he thought was inevitable and right, but which the US public wouldn't initially support. According to Marshall, the neo-conservatives welcome an escalation of the conflict between the US and the Arab world. It's a war that might as well be fought now, as later, and the invasion of Iraq is the starting gun, but not the full extent of neocon plans for the region. JMM thinks the ultrahawks are too optimistic, and the risks of chaos too great, but he does make the neo-conservative case for a wider conflict, more compellingly than its advocates. "Practice to Deceive" [Joshua Micah Marshall]
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