Welcome. This is Anastasia Yuglova bringing you the Cato Daily Podcast.

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Self-identified neo-conservatives are at the forefront of the push for war with Iran.

Most recently, Ruel Mark Grecht of the American Enterprise Institute argued on Cato's online magazine

Cato Unbound for Air Strikes on the Islamic Republic. Bill Crystal has made similar

arguments in his magazine, The Weekly Standard. Cato's senior editor Jean Healy believes that war is central to the neo-conservative philosophy, who it's with and what it's about being entirely beside the point.

In today's podcast, Jean states his case.

In an issue of the weekly standard last summer, Bill Crystal asked his readers,

why wait, does anyone think a nuclear Iran can be contained?

So why after what's happening with Iraq are self-described

neo-conservatives still convinced that more war is the answer to the Middle East?

Well, I take them at their word that they think that the Iranian regime is under terrible. I mean I don't

believe that to be the case but I believe that they're convinced of that. You would

think that after what's happened in Iraq that Neo Conservatives would be a little leery of calling so loudly for

more wars, but in some ways they seem to be undeterable themselves.

We can debate any of these individual wars, but there's sort of a larger issue that

I think is interesting as well.

If you look at current foreign policy debates in the Middle East and if you look back at

what neo-conservatives were saying throughout the 1990s what becomes increasingly clear. what

we're saying throughout the 1990s. What becomes increasingly clear is that war is central to

neo-conserbitism as a political philosophy.

...