Sic Semper Tyrannis 2008

"More on Ideological Blinkers" Dr. Louis Cantori

Professor Louis Cantori has givn me permission to post the following comment on the site for the purpose of extending the discussion that has followed the appearance of my recent piece in "Foreign Policy" (on line).  Professor Cantori's remarks clarify much in the discussion to date.  pl

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"The argument of Lang, Habakuk , Chesterfield  and others about the American creed is an important one. It is important because it provides an intellectual explanation for the zealous, unreasoning  quality of American foreign policy. It is an argument that can be extended to include academic analysis as well and it is also an argument that can be expanded to include countries that possess a liberal political culture. America is not alone in this. It is perhaps simply more zealous."  Louis Cantori.

Download cantori_lang_liberalism.pdf

"WHAT COMES NEXT" - Cantori

WHAT COMES NEXT: THE FAILURE OF AMERICAN MIDDLE EAST POLICY
LOUIS J. CANTORI
UMIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY

In early 2004, a Washington meeting of U.S. Government employees supporting American operations in Iraq gathered to hear the first hand reports of two Coalition Provisional Administration employees just returning from Iraq. These reports at this early point in the American commitment were novel in nature and had a quality of being “fresh from the front”. The two speakers did not disappoint the audience. There was a certain “Indiana Jones” adventurous quality about what they had to say. As they went on to recount their professional experiences, both of them made unselfconscious passing references to the pride they felt in fulfilling American “imperial” responsibilities in Iraq. Their references to things “imperial” was casual and matter of fact and no one in the audience of about forty persons then or later challenged the appropriateness of the word “imperial”.