Most of us are familiar with the ravings of Leo Strauss, who gave the current crop of neocons their wet dreams about empire.His thesis ( as described by Shadia Drury in two excellent books and many essays) was simply a variation on the theme of Mein Kampf, that society is composed of the Elite who are born to rule and the Masses, born to obey the Elite. The Elite are entitled to lie at will to the masses because that makes the job of governing that much easier.
It is ironic that the man who expounded this thesis was a jew who escaped Nazi Germany and landed in Chicago where he promptly found that America was going to the dogs because it believed in enfranchising the Masses ( Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and other Untermenschen).He set about dressing up the Nazi ideology in more modern clothes and the Neocon philosophy was born.The lies uttered by many of the neocons,including Cheney, Libby, Miller,Bush,and numerous others owe their inspiration directly to Strauss.
But the actual facts on the ground in Iraq and elsewhere were inspired by a British revivalist called Paul Johnson.His theme was that the Arab world needs to be returned to the days of Kipling and colonized for the next hundred or so years so it can become more “Western” in its outlook,laws and customs instead of the savagery that exists today.In the process Western nations will be entitled to help themselves to whatever resources the Arab nations have ( oil, for example) just like the British helped impoverish countries like India and Kenya in their long colonial rule. Johnson concocted many benefits conferred on India and Kenya by their colonial masters and wanted the U.S. to bless the Arab nations with the same advancements.The deliberate impoverishment of the colonized countries was a synergistic benefit that a tried and true Britsih Imperialist like Johnson could not afford to let pass by.
Between the philosophical underpinnings of Strauss and the colonialist ambitions of Paul Johnson, we now have a situation that has returned us to the early days of resurgent colonial ambitions.In thsi enterprise, the Israeli Zionists act as the spear carriers for the “philosophers” like Strauss and Johnson.
Almost all the staged events that we have been exposed to in the past five years are simply the manifestations of that pernicious philosophy.