Prof. David Gibbs: Neoconservatism & the Weaponization of Human Rights
with Prof. Glenn Diesen
Neoconservatism began to take root in the 1970s as strength through militarism and an interventionist foreign policy were increasingly seen as the path to peace. Ideological Manicheanism and narratives of peace through strength challenged more traditional concepts of security that focused on mitigating the security dilemma. Human rights, rather than restraining the use of force, were discovered as a weapon that would legitimize the removal of restraints on the use of force.
Thank you, Glenn. A very informative conversation. Speaking of the latest ‘peace through war’ initiative, Australia is going to join the coalition of the willing (you would think that they come up with less problematic ‘name’). I wonder if this was a Freudian slip by the Australian PM: “"We must ensure Russia's illegal and immoral actions are ***not rewarded through any peace process***," Mr Albanese added.”
The pursuit of power is nothing if not opportunist, and the would-be world rulers are nothing if not pursuers of power.
I knew a guy during the early years of the occupation of Afghanistan who worked for the UN and was adamant that the US there and in Iraq had an absolute Responsibility To Protect ("R2P") which obliged them to stay there almost indefinitely.
The facts - for example that the "terrorists" killed by the US, the people they were allegedly protecting the civilians from, were about 99.8% civilians, and that the US' justification for killing them was to retroactively call everyone they killed a terrorist (yes, they actually said those words; "everyone we kill is a terrorist") - didn't matter to him at all. R2P reigned supreme and all other considerations were null and void.
Of course it was all nonsense, cynical lies concocted for the purpose of blunting domestic opposition to another hideously expensive (to the taxpayers) and obscenely brutal (for the people being liberated and protected) and monstrously profitable (for the military industrial complex) war.
Remember this, is nothing else: Truth Is The First Casualty Of War.
The first thing they do when they want to go to war is tell us lies about what they're planning, why, how, who, for how long, etc.
ALL their wars are fake cynical money laundering murderous scams. Everything they say about them is a lie.
Learn.