The Appearance of War in Discourse: An Analysis of the Neoconservative Movement

Abstract

Much has been written on the US policy of invading Iraq. Some of these accounts have focused on the neoconservative movement, and powerful criticisms have been directed towards it. This study adds to this literature by analyzing the neoconservative discourse preceding the invasion. The specificity of this analysis lies in how it resists the temptation to launch an attack towards this discourse at every corner. While neoconservative discourse is often historically baseless, morally repugnant, or academically reprehensible, the principal aim here is to analyze the discourse on its own terms, so as to examine the way in which war appeared within it. This very appearance gives us a view of the paradoxical question that makes this discourse theoretically viable at the same time that it slowly destroys it.