Newt’s Neocon Army

TPM2012
Newt's Neocon Army
Benjy Sarlin & Evan McMorris-Santoro November 29, 2011, 6:00 AM 5288 54

When it comes to foreign policy, the Republican frontrunner likes it old-school. Neo-old school.

We've had two foreign policy themed debates in the GOP primary now, which have provided ample opportunity to see what a Republican foreign policy would look like in 2013. And in the case of Newt Gingrich, it would probably look like a kind of neocon fantasy land.

Foreign Policy published an excellent rundown of Gingrich's foreign policy advising team, most of whom "have known Newt for decades, and see themselves as helping a candidate who already boasts a long track record and well-formed intellectual identity when it comes to foreign policy."

Here's a taste of World Team Gingrich:

David Wurmser: Gingrich's Middle East policy adviser was a notorious member of Vice President Cheney's inner circle that pushed the U.S. into war in Iraq. Once he was questioned during an espionage probe while in the vice president's office, and he was one of the names driving the initial support for the later disgraced Ahmed Chalabi. Asked by the Daily Telegraph in 2007 if he was a neocon, he offered this: "There's nothing 'neo' about me. I'm a very medieval sort of guy."

James Woosley: A former director of the CIA, Woolsey recently spoke at a panel hosted by the founder of Judicial Watch focused on President Obama's " political jihad promoting Islam around the world." Woolsey is a serious Iran hawk, warning that the way the West is dealing with the nation at the moment "rhymes with what was taking place in the 1930s [with Nazi Germany]". Woolsey is a Democrat (of the Lieberman school) but he's helped Republicans running for president before. In 2008, he advised John McCain.

Stephen Yates: Another ex-Cheney national security team member, Yates is known among other things for his work on China. One former U.S. ambassador to China familiar with Yates says he views "China as the solution to 'enemy deprivation syndrome.'" As Counterpunch explained the theory, "You need some unifying enemy after the collapse of the Soviet Union." Not exactly the most productive way to view one of America's most important trading partner, perhaps.

It's not just Gingrich who's dipping in the neocon well to form a national security strategy. Rick Perry, who was once the frontrunner before descending out of view like so many before him, leaned on former Donald Rumsfeld deputy Doug Feith, best known for pushing the Al queda-Iraq connection in the run up to the Iraq War and being called by former Gen. Tommy Franks "the f***ing stupidest guy on the face of the earth."

But no one can top Michele Bachmann when it comes to extremist foreign policy advisers. No less than Islamic fearmonger-in-chief Frank Gaffney himself has been a foreign policy adviser to her campaign.

Foreign policy is a favorite topic inside the beltway, though with the down economy (and a Democratic president in office who never met a missile-laden drone he didn't like) it's not clear how much of a role arguments over international affairs will have on the presidential campaign. Republicans certainly like to ding President Obama over Israel and Iran, but it's hard to predict how important those fights will be down the line. Still, the willingness of Republicans to embrace the Bush foreign policy team ­ which in the end were among the least popular of his administration ­ is maybe telling.

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