Partying Like it's 1976 ... or Maybe '50

Matt Welch | November 30, 2004

Checking around the Internet for any reaction to Glenn Reynolds' Havel-for-UN-prez campaign (which he advanced further in the pages of the Wall Street Journal Online yesterday), I came across this Inter Press Service column calling the whole thing a big neo-con scam. Then this paragraph jumped out at me:

Conveniently, Havel now serves as co-chairman of the international wing of the new Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), a neo-conservative-dominated group that believes President George W Bush's "war on terrorism" is the equivalent of "World War IV".

The freakin' Committee on the Present Danger? Havel? Really?

Really. While I was apparently napping, the Cold War star chamber was exhumed by Joe Lieberman, Jon Kyl, James Woolsey and a cast of hawkish all-stars. Scandal quickly ensued, though it apparently passed over. Havel joined in September (follow that link for the sight of Richard Perle praising the Czech ex-president in Prague), agreeing to become international co-chair, along with former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. It's interesting to contemplate that the CPD's previous two incarnations came about when hawks feared that the government and the populace were insufficiently serious about the Grave Threat at hand.

Anyway, regarding Havel's UN candidacy, his health is probably not up to it, and his UN-bashing backers might begin to flinch the more they realize what a committed sovereignty-slashing multi-lateralist he is.

Comments

|11.30.04 @ 2:20PM|#

Committee on the President Danger or Present Danger?
Freudian slip?

|11.30.04 @ 2:26PM|#

Um, did I sleep through "World War III" or something? Was it on the teevee?

Matt Welch|11.30.04 @ 2:30PM|#

Ruthless -- Oh, that's funny.... Thanks!

|11.30.04 @ 2:32PM|#

Well, if Laurie (Saddam's behind herpes) Mylroie is on board, it must be a force for truth and responsibility.

It's great to define your enemy as "terrorism," and the goals of your group as "fighting terrorism." That way, you can squash any Middle Easterner who looks at you funny, keep repeating "9/11" if anyone asks hard questions, and all sorts of dupes will just nod along.

Kevin Carson|11.30.04 @ 2:45PM|#

As I've said before, Havel fills the same pet intellectual niche for the neocons that Reinhold Niebuhr did for technocratic Cold War liberalism.

He's got excellent anti-totalitarian credentials from the days when he, you know, actually DID something. And that makes an excellent branding device for the kind of centralized, technocratic spectator democracies the neocons like to see installed in the Third World.

The Walls Came Tumbling Down (TM)

|11.30.04 @ 3:16PM|#

Ken B,

Hawks like to describe the Cold War as "World War III" and the current struggle against "Islamofascism" as "World War IV." See, if the threat is as immediate and serious as it was during World War II, you justify all sorts of atrocities, power grabs, and enforced conformity under the heading "Don't you know there's a war on?"

It's a lot harder to convince people that dissent from the president's policies = treason against your nation when they're not on an emotional war footing.

|11.30.04 @ 3:37PM|#

Where's that new Mensa guy? (no offense, joe),
but how high do Roman numerals go?
MMXXZZZPPP?
or until we run out of humans to kill? Whichever comes first?

|11.30.04 @ 6:14PM|#

Prediction from MoStar-domus:

drum roll please...........................

The next Secretary General of the UN will be..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
William Jefferson Clinton.

Remember, you read it hear first, folks.

Kevin Carson|11.30.04 @ 6:53PM|#

NoStar,

Actually, I heard it from a guy at work about four years ago.

|11.30.04 @ 8:45PM|#

I can't envision Slick taking Kofi's place, but Ted Turner (Turd Tenner?--can't help myself)

Surely Ted already has a complete mahogany-boxed set of Slim Whitman's greatest hits as premiums for responding to the pledge drive and being a supporting member of the UN.

|12.1.04 @ 8:59AM|#

Clinton is out. A member of the permanent Security Council can't produce a Sec Gen. So the US is the only North American nation that's not eligable to run the UN.

|12.1.04 @ 9:40AM|#

Bill could move his offices to Angola and claim he is african...

|12.1.04 @ 1:12PM|#

Dave Weigel

Surely if the US Constitution can be amended to make the Govenator Prez, they can amend the UN Charter for Slick Willie. :)