Santorum the Neo-Con

My exposure to Rick Santorum up until this week has been minimal.  I did remember him endorsing Senator Arlen Specter over a conservative challenger only to see Specter join the Democrats.  He says he did so because he was loyal to the party even though Specter was a very liberal Republican.  So, he is a party over principles politician.  Nothing new there. However, I admire him for his staunch pro-life stances over the years.

I knew he was a Neo-conservative and a chickenhawk but the following speech describes his vision of a non-ending war against Islam....which I am sure is music to the ears of the military-industrial complex.  I will not dissect the speech paragraph by paragraph but his overall logic escapes me.  It has the echo of a Hilaire Belloc treatise without the erudition and wisdom of the early 20th century author.  We have not been fighting a united and homogeneous Islamic enemy for 1500 years but rather a series of Islamic empires with the Ottoman empire being the most recent and dangerous.  He wants to rally Christendom in a war against the new militant Islam but the agnostic and secular humanists in the West could care less about religious wars....it is about petroleum resources and hegemonic power.

BTW, he couldn't help himself in the speech not taking a swipe at France.  He noted that France was not part of the Holy League in the late seventeenth century in the fight against the Ottoman's similar to its stance on the Iraq invasion in 2002.  He neglected to add that neither was England or a slew of other European countries involved in the Holy League crusade against the Ottomans.  This assertion is just  intellectually dishonest on his part and demonstrates the reflexive Franco-phobia of the Neo-con clique.

Some of his points have validity but his overall thesis does not hold up that we have to be on a war footing with militant Islam for decades to come.  I don't think he has a chance to be President although he finished strong in Iowa this week.  But he could be Vice president and that could make him a heartbeat away from the Presidency.  

The ideological struggle with militant Islam is a mirage.  We are not dealing with caliphates or Ottoman's but with militants who are fighting.......to be left alone and rule as they wish in their own territories according to 7th century precepts.  They do not want the western type of democracy practiced in the West.  The Jihadist talk is aimed at Israel and removing Israel from the Middle East but no one is directly threatening Europe or the USA.  The greatest enemies of Europe and the USA are themselves and in the case of Europe the dilution of religion and cultural identity over the past half century.   I don't know how Santorum can talk so long and never mention the subject of Israel while discussing the dynamics of Middle East politics and Iran in particular.

Although the speech was given in 2007 I wonder about the results of his support of the decade long military, ideological and quasi-religious crusade and the rise of Islamists during the Arab Spring.  I would reckon that there is a high correlation between the popularity of the Islamists and the implementation of reckless invasions by the western powers.

  Rick Santorum Speech