E.D. Kain's Total Break With Reality

I have to admit that reading E.D. Kain is, for me, one of the more interesting things about the postmodern blogosphere. E.D., a past publisher of a popular neoconservative website (the name has been changed to protect the embarrassed), has now become one of the biggest Andrew Sullivan myrmidons of the left-blogosphere. Even more interesting, it's clear by now that E.D's ideological shift wasn't just a change of heart, but has now matastasized into clinical case of Sullivan-esque psychopathology (with a smidgen of Larison-esque anti-Americanism).

Case in point is E.D.'s post this afternoon, "Adventures in Invective," and the introduction alone's worth the price of admission:

“What leaves me with a queasy feeling, though, is the growing sense that Obama is willing to denigrate America in order to boost his own personal popularity in other countries. As President, Obama has a responsibility to explain and interpret America to the rest of the world — in a way that is truthful and corresponds to reality for sure, but in a way that explains his country and its history and actions. So it would have been nice for him to point out just once that (as Charles Krauthammer has reminded us) during the last two decades Americans have shed their blood and spent their treasure in order to defend innocent Muslims in Kuwait, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq.” ~ Peter Wehner

Right, Peter. That’s exactly what Obama’s doing - denigrating America in order to boost his popularity in other countries. And you’re right, he should have reminded the Turks and Europeans about all those American-instigated wars; I’m sure they’ve forgotten all about them by now. Certainly the President should have spent more time pointing out just how successful the “liberating” Americans have been in Iraq. That always goes over well in countries totally opposed to the Iraq war and fundamentally opposed to American arrogance and imperialism.

You see, Wehner is having trouble with what many neocons and movement conservative types are suffering from: a total break with reality. This makes it very, very difficult to understand the importance of reinvigorating our diplomatic efforts with, yes, even the French.

Read the rest of the post at the link.

So, who's really suffering a reality break here?

Well, let's first review these "American-instigated" wars: Kuwait? Eh, hello. E.D.'s obviously referring to the Gulf War of 1990-91. The conflict was the result of Saddam Hussein's invasion of his southern neighbor is July 1990. The threat to international security was recognized around the world, and for the first time in its history of the United Nations mounted a true collective security response, a deployment ultimately representing more than three dozen nations. This multinational force, underwritten by American military primacy, successfully ejected Iraq from Kuwait - thus securing the free flow of crude from the Persian Gulf region.

And Bosnia? I can't recall anyone on the left denouncing the U.S. for "Bosnian imperialism." If anything, leftists were attacking the Clinton administration for turning its back on a humanitarian "slaughterhouse" (see Mark Danner, "America and the Bosnia Genocide").

Now, about Afghanistan? Yes, the U.S. fought the Afghanistan war in 2001 and 2002, a successful engagement that was largely considered a strategic masterpiece at the time - with the main complaint against the deployment being that U.S. forces failed to capture Osama bin Laden. Upon authorization, only Representative Barbara Lee voted against the mission in either chamber of Congress. Recall that this week Ms. Lee led a delegation from the Congressional Black Caucus to Cuba, and while there lauded supreme leader Fidel Castro as an agent of international cooperation (see my essay, "Congressional Black Communists?").

And Iraq? Well, left and right will never agree on "Bush's debacle," although in 2003 all the top Democrats rushed to authorize the deployment. Arthur Borden's, A Better Country: Why America Was Right to Confront Iraq, puts all the left wing criticisms to bed; and as David Horowitz shows in Party of Defeat, the Democratic Party literally stabbed American forces in the back by turning against a war - for rank political purposes - that its members had initially voted to support in overwhelming numbers.

So, we can ask the same question of E.D. Kain that prominent writers have been increasingly asking of his idol Andrew Sullivan: "Should anyone take this man seriously"?

I have nothing personal against E.D. Kain. It's that rarely in my personal and political life have I encountered anyone with less integrity and credibility. This is a man who once published a number of neoconservative authors at his neocon blog-portal, and then one day he disappeared from the radar with nary an explanation. That behavior alone raises questions of character in my mind. But this post today clinches the case that E.D.'s gone literally batty. Conservatism has lots of problem, but they certainly aren't found in the writing of Peter Wehner. Besides, E.D. Kain and the boys at Ordinary Gentlemen are the last people who should be attempting a takedown of the right, much less the articulation of a "21st Century Conservatism."