Edward Luttwak: The Machiavelli of Maryland | Hacker News Reader

Edward Luttwak: The Machiavelli of Maryland

theguardian.com

39 pointsblackbagboys9 comments

A good read. Having never heard of the man he seems like an extraordinarily successful variant of the self-aggrandising “arm-chair general” found in pubs throughout the world. Right down to the highly questionable claims to have seen military action. This and other of the claims could certainly have been fact checked here. It comes across as though the journalist didn’t want to offend him by showing up the obvious lies.

Luttwak is a welcome guest of italian TV talk shows because: (a) he speaks Italian and (b) he has a usually different, and often interesting, point of view. Even if one does not like its macho-neocon slant, he is a rather smart guy.

c) he was considered the unofficial speaker for NATO in Italy in the '70s and '80s, saying the outrageous things others couldn't say and making local "Atlanticist" politicians look moderate in comparison.

He evidently wants to present himself as The Most Interesting Man In The World.

I suppose there must be some people who still find Obama-is-a-Muslim rabid warmongering neocons interesting http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/opinion/12luttwak.html

How does this article support the"Obama is a Muslim" trope? His point is that some of the Muslim world might view Obama as an apostate because of his parentage, over which he had no control, and his renunciation of Islam and conversion to Christianity, which he did.

"But of all the well-meaning desires projected on Senator Obama, the hope that he would decisively improve relations with the world’s Muslims is the least realistic."

He certainly had that right.

At best, he is trying to have it both ways: Saying it outright and then raising the tone a few octaves into dog-whistle range.

Eh, 7 years in, the fear that Muslim countries would strike a personal beef or pose a direct to Obama, as a result of his parentage, has not become real, as far as I have heard.

And I've heard of no US domestic Muslims attempting any assassination.

It seems that Muslims are not as irrationally bloodthirsty as many imagine.

Interesting read -- i had no idea about his youth in sicily. Now I know what made him so "popular" in Italy.

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