Islam Times - US Democratic Party aligning with neoconservatives

Islam Times - The Democratic Party in the United States has shifted to the right in its foreign policy, increasingly aligning with the interventionist agenda of neoconservatives, an American writer and academic says.

“The neocons today do not differ very much from the Democrats and the liberals who are also calling for greater aggression against Russia, China and Iran,” said James Petras, a retired professor who has published on political issues with particular focus on Latin America, the Middle East and imperialism.

“So these distinctions between neocons, liberals, real estate speculators; they’re diminishing and we’re finding a kind of uniformed reaction in the United States” to perceived foreign threats, Petras said.

Neocons have “resonance with other political tendencies which have moved to the right,” he added.

Former US Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul say President Donald Trump may not be a neoconservative, but he is heavily influenced by its political ideology, which is heavily pro-Israel and promotes American military interventions.

Paul, a former Republican member of the US House of Representatives, who has also run for presidency, made the remarks in an interview when asked if he thinks that Trump is a neocon.

“Probably not in the true sense of the word,” Dr. Paul replied, “but that does not mean that he isn’t influenced by the neocons. He obviously is.”

“And what makes you wonder whether he is just rhetoric and whether he deep-down inside whether he is, because of his appointments. And that’s the thing I ponder. I go back and forth but I just look at the conclusion at the very end. And that’s all that counts,” he added.

Paul said that Trump frequently “sounds like he doesn’t strongly identify with neocons, but his policies frequently do.”

In another interview, Dr. Paul said President Trump will regret the day he allowed American neoconservatives to take over his foreign policy.

“President Trump will come to regret the day he let the neocons take over his foreign policy. Their track record is abysmal. The attack on Syria was clearly illegal, and should his party lose the House in November he may find his new fair-weather friends in the Democratic Party quickly turning foul,” he said in April.