GEITNER SIMMONS, NO MERE SPECTATOR

The host of Regions of Mind cooly dissects an anti-Neocon jeremiad from Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke in print edition of the American Spectator that argues that today's neoconservatives are far outside the foreign policy tradition of Ronald Reagan. Geitner is right on target in his critique - the two scholars in question seem to be either constructing a polemical argument by ignoring contrary historical evidence or they are not terribly well informed about the details of Reagan administration foreign policy.

I will have some comments of my own to add to Geitner's in an update explaining why Clarke and Halper's thesis is a relatively weak one.

UPDATE ON THE UPDATE

I've found a wealth of material tonight, more than I bargained for really, on Reagan's Foreign policy and the role of neocons in shaping it. Plus, why viewing internal conflicts over foreign affairs inside the Reagan administration as a primarily ideological struggle of Conservative realists vs. Neoconservative ideologues is not only simplistic but frankly incorrect. I'm batting it into shape to post tomorrow morning.  ¶ 6:50 AM