Abstract

Multiple concepts are compatible between the Neocons and postmodernists. i.e., The concept presented by Leo Strauss of "Noble Lie," if we further dissect this concept, shows how compatible and similar with the reality-free world of the postmodern philosophers. According to postmodernism, we have no objective reality exists in this world as it is relative, and everyone sees it according to his understanding. This thesis becomes apparent when studying Nietzsche's critique against Juan Stuart Mill. Nietzsche has denounced Mill's concept of a universal and objective Moral system. As Nietzsche says, I abhor this man's vulgarity when he says, "what is right for one man is right for another man." It shows that all postmodern philosophers and Nietzsche were of the same view.

Key Words

Postmodernism, Neoconservatives, Leo Strauss, Derrida, Nietzsche, Theory of Epistemology, Theory of Deconstruction, Iraq, Weapon of Mass Destruction, Noble Lie

Introduction

It is very much doable to understand postmodernism from different events than through reams of text. Once a person asked St Augustine that what literature is?  He replied that until you did not ask me, knew what literature is (Sahar, 2020-21).  The same is the problem with postmodernism, too. We do not have any definition of postmodernism, neither subjective nor universal. According to Norman K. Denzin," Post-modernism is an impenetrable jargon  (Delaney, 2014)." In the jurisdiction of social sciences, the erudite faction defines everything subjectively. The genuine yarn behind this approach is that the source of episteme or knowledge in social sciences is not purely empirical but rational, unlike natural sciences, where we define different concepts objectively.

The same is the case with postmodernism; too, everyone has defined it according to his capacity, approach, and level of knowledge." Postmodernism is when you put everything in question marks (Palmer, 2014)." Secondly, in social sciences, we comparatively define different concepts. It is very explicit from history than whenever we try to define Modernism, we compare it with the dark ages because both act as a thesis and anti-thesis. This comparative analysis of different theories and approaches makes it easy to define different concepts explicitly. However, postmodernism has deprived itself of this sort of analysis because it has rejected and has tried to demolish the foundation of Modernism and all its margins that whirl around it. Postmodernism is trying to define itself in a personal capacity without taking help from existing episteme for which postmodernism acts as an anti-thesis. Now, when it does not take help from alien concepts, we have an alternative way to define this jargon.

Literature Review

Naturally, conservatives are appalled by this broad criticism of Western heritage and objective reality and reason denial. Denying contemporary Enlightenment is a controversial issue among conservatism's adherents. The Enlightenment, say others, is the greatest way to combat left-wing postmodernism, even though it overemphasized empirical science and critical reason. Neoconservatives base their public worldview on the first sentence (Kraynak, 2000).

Numerous critics drew attention to the fact that numerous significant exponents of the Iraqi conflict have been Jewish, such as Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Perle. On the other hand, Leo Strauss was accused of being "a proponent of the 'noble lie'—the concept that lying to the people is practically required because only a small elite is cognitively capable of knowing what the truth means  (Fukuyama F. , 2006)." 

After fleeing the Nazis in the 1930s, Leo Strauss settled in the United States, where he mainly taught at the University of Chicago until he died in 1973. The rationalist heritage of western philosophy was undercut by Nietzsche and Heidegger, leaving modernity without a conceptual foundation for its ideas and institutions  (Fukuyama F. , 2006).

However, with the rise of post-modern philosophies, the pre-established ideas of faith, ethics, and reason became uncertain, which blurred the construct of meaning. A similar tendency can be seen in the decline of militant fundamentalism from its following of fundamental religious truths to the detaching of any ethical construct it was associated with previously. ISIS can undoubtedly be added to the list of post-modern, neo- fundamentalist ideologies that are the harbors of violence, and it is evident that militant fundamentalism grows out of such places that are generically chaotic. (Rasheed, Why militant fundamentalism is post-modern, not orthodox, 2018).

Postmodernism is a versatile concept. Apart from adding fuel to the ongoing terrorism in the world, it owns aesthetics, art, and many more wings. The Postmodern terrorist factions such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and many more, do not represent postmodernism completely. Postmodernism contributes to the domain of art, Philosophy, Poetry, and Literature. It made it a notorious phenomenon based on its specific peripheries that would not be justice  (Lloyd, 2016). 




How did American Neoconservatives imitate Postmodernists' Philosophy and Pave the Way for American Invasions?

Formation of Neoconservatives' Movement and its Basic Postulates

The thorny issue of Neocons, which is the modified form of conservatives in the months running before and after the Iraq war, the issue of neoconservatives glommed and alleged the Bush administration garnered much attention. The story is constantly fascinating because it has occurred to provide a conspiratorial key to the administration's actions. The international system keeps order by enforcing laws and institutions that are seen as legitimate because they have the permission of those who have governed. Insofar, the United Nations is an example of this, where member nations diligent and conglomerate in democratic colloquy aimed at gaining understanding and consensus

The Bush Doctrine epitomizes neo-conservatism, a philosophical movement founded on the principles of Leo Strauss. From Strauss, neo-conservatism has inherited the fear of relativism. Of course, Strauss's critique of modernity claims that liberal society breeds moral relativism, eroding society's moral foundation. Strauss advocates for a return to antiquity, namely a Platonic society in which elites dominate through myths that provide moral truth and a sense of national purpose. Strauss fights against modernity as this tussle received worldwide thanks to neo-conservatism. Therefore, the Bush Doctrine ignores the requirement for consensus development because it assumes that basic democratic ideas are universal. Instead, considering what "just" is, may assist us in comprehending the traditional nature of morality. As a result, neo-conservatism attempts to reinstate and overhaul ancient systems of control through applying moral absolutes, while the execution of these ideals opposes international order based on liberal principles. In a nutshell, neoconservative policies have disarrayed and gashed the universal order and isolated the United States from the modern world (Luongo, 2009).

The primary stride is to esteem and obey the established international rules to preserve the global order and maintain harmony. The similitude with international law steadily indicates the legality of international institutions. To earn legitimacy and mutual understandings that refer to the approval of civil rights is to brandish power, stimulate debates, facilitate reasoning and encourage compromises. History reflects that this legitimacy is under the enormous pressure of confronting several events and global threats or underlined by Supreme powers to meet their selfish ends domestically or internationally. For instance, the use of the U.N. to justify the Iraq invasion by the Bush administration is one of their popping examples (Luongo, 2009). The U.N. has internationally recognized as a great institution by its members as a forum to assign dialogue tables to scrutinize international and regional disputes and find a sustainable solution. Thus, the members carefully and mindfully discuss the hot conflicts, controversies, and rush hour threats and sometimes suggest the armed action mandated by chapter 7 to congruence with International law. 

Postmodern Approach: A Tool Used By Neocons

The Iraq invasion was not just counted as the miscalculation of all the available options, but rather it was the surpassing of article 51 of the U.N. charter of self-defense. The neo-conservatism has beautifully framed it as an uncompromising doctrine of pro-American intentions of approving self legitimacy then foreign policy ultimately be hanging on fear of relativism and cannot setback in modern legitimacy, and that put the International order governed by liberal principles on the hot point of debate for new conservatism, willows to carry on negative criticism on modernity. These varied writings glimpse the postmodernist calculation of international relations, which are fairly directed by studies of traditionally marginalized sites and focused on chaos, terror, and intelligibility (Pickard, 2008).

Nietzsche has also reinforced the philosophy of anarchism even though he is a postmodernist philosopher. After reading Friedrich Nietzsche, one quickly finds the similarities between the traditions of anarchism and the writings of Nietzsche. Nietzsche, Anarchism, Neoconservatism and have a lot in common. Christos Iliopoulos describes Anarchism and Nietzsche's relationship in his book Nietzsche and Anarchism. He says that the relationship between Anarchism and Nietzsche leads us to another school of thought named Nietzschean Anarchism.  (Iliopoulos, Nietzsche & Anarchism an elective Affinity, 2013).

If we illustrate and examine Neocons' very basic sayings and ideas, we find it very quickly, and it becomes explicit that the primary source of these ideas is her (America) own traditions. If we want to dissect Neocons' ideas and apply the retrospective method, we should consider some points. Neocons should be examined in their capacity without considering their theological and religious approach and background. It is a baseless assumption that no such movement (Neoconservatism) exists. History reveals that many tectonic Neoconservative protagonists who participated in American politics significantly influenced American foreign policy. From Kristol to Podhoretz and Strauss, they have actively participated in American politics and have played a significant role in paving the way for American invasions. Fukuyama's book reveals that the natural yarn behind America's invasion into Iraq and Afghanistan was the mind and hard-power-oriented Philosophy of the Neoconservatives. They believed that peace/peace in the Arab world could only be achieved through hard power (Hamburger, 2015).




Bloom, Nietzsche, and Neoconservatives

The philosophical commonality between Bloom and the neoconservatives was a preoccupation with nihilism as an inherent danger of modern society. Bloom understood nihilism, following Nietzsche, as the distinctly modern loss of faith in transcendent sources of meaning, such as religion, reason, or anything else that can serve as a ground for commitments and beliefs. Drawing on the ideas of his mentor Strauss, as well as those of Nietzsche, Tocqueville, and Plato, Bloom wrote in Closing that nihilism was endemic to liberal democratic societies, which suffered from an inability to justify themselves based on a positive idea of the social good (Hamburger, 2015). Some have looked to Leo Straus' political views to justify military interventionism as part of the noble job of making sense of recent American conflicts in the Middle East. As a result, neoconservative historians have frequently cited Bloom, the most renowned "Straussian," as a mentor to several critical Republican foreign policy leaders, most notably Paul Wolfowitz, the prominent architect of the 2003 Iraq invasion (Norton, 2004 ).

It will be a foggy assumption if one assumes that Neoconservatives influenced the Bush administration because no single person of the Straussian background was included in Bush's administration. This portrays that Bush's regime was free and safe from Strauss's influence.




Paving the Way for America's Invasions 

 Invading Iraq was a factious and ensuing decision in U.S. foreign policy. Whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction has been disputed in the past. President Bush lied to his administration, which later proved that Saddam Hussein had no unusual weapons of mass obliteration. Robert Jervis also said that if Iraq had nuclear power and the United States was threatened, invading Iraq was not legal. He added that Iraq was attacked because President Bush did not like the Iraqi government. We must search the causes and justify the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. Even traditional theories of I.R. have failed to justify the Iraqi war (Hinnebusch, 2007).




Leo Strauss' Concept of "Noble Lie" and America's Invasion of Iraq

A compatibility factor exists between the Neocons and Strauss' concept of "Noble lie." According to Strauss, the artificially established truth in any society or political paradigm is used as a tool by politicians to gain support for any political movement. Same was the case with America's invasions into different states and especially Iraq. The primary and public motive behind USA's invasion was the issue of the existence of WMD, but, According to Fukuyama, the main aim of the USA behind her invasion into Iraq was to make the Arab world or the Middle East a secure region for the state of Israel. Why is this so? Because the intellectuals' class behind America's move was Neocons and Neocons were mainly Jewish, they wanted to make the environment of this region, the Middle East, secure and favorable for the remaining and existence of Israel. WMD's claim of the USA against Iraq was just a Noble lie in order to gain public support by making an Anti-Iraq public opinion in the USA and all over the world, and that was the only way that they provided their invasion with a Cassus billi and justified their invasion by relying on the stance of having WMD with Iraq. Even though sixty percent of the Americans had approved the USA's invasion, conditionally, the condition was that if UNSC permits then. 

ISIS: A Postmodern Jihadist Faction

Religion, via spiritual injunctions, ethical separation of right from false, and constraints on bestial and Carnal inclinations, has created a sense in human awareness from ancient times. Rationalism and science have created new norms of personal, societal, and universal ideas with the advent of European light. With the increase of post-modern philosophies, however, certainty in established religious institutions, ethics, and even reason, the very structure of significance, which was proclaimed for the pursuit of fundamental religious truths to almost complete the disintegration of any ethical truth, began to blur in itself.

As postmodern Marxists, bestial has prevailed in spiritual and the rational, leading to the almost collapse of religion and any appearance of good sense. The fundamental requirements of their faith were broken by organizations like al-Qaeda and ISIS, taking their ideas from their post-modern intellectual teachers. The term ISIS might be added certainly to the roster of these post-modern neo-fundamentalist violent suppliers. No surprise, in situations of total disorder and disarray, violent fundamentalism strives.




Postmodern Jihadists' Groups and their Atrocities

It was from the Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), a local al-Qaeda offshoot founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2004, that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh. It fell into oblivion for a few years after the entrance of U.S. forces into Iraq in 2007. It fell into oblivion for a few years after the entrance of U.S. forces into Iraq in 2007. However, in 2011 it started to reappear. In the ensuing years, it utilized increasing instability in Iraq and Syria to carry out attacks and grow its numbers. The organization retitled the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq in 2013 (ISIS). In June 2014, ISIS launched an attack against Mosul and Tikrit. On June 29, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi acknowledged the formation of an Islamic caliphate extending from Aleppo, Syria, to Diyala, Iraq, and renamed the group the Islamic State. On August 7, 2014, a coalition headed by the United States launched bombing against ISIS in Iraq, and the operation was expanded to Syria the following month.

 The campaign was dubbed "Operation Inherent Resolve" by the United States on October 15. Over the next year, the U.S. carried out over 8,000 bombings in Iraq and Syria. ISIS sustained significant casualties near the Syrian border with Turkey, and by the end of 2015, Iraqi troops had made significant progress toward retaking Ramadi. However, in Syria, ISIS made inroads near Aleppo while maintaining Raqqa and other bases. ISIS grew into a network of affiliates in at least eight different states in the same year. Its branches, sympathizers, and affiliates were increasingly launching out attacks outside the boundaries of its self-proclaimed caliphate. In October, an ISIS affiliate in Egypt pounced on a Russian airplane, killing 224 people. On November 13, 130 people were killed, and over 300 were injured in a coordinated attack in Paris. In June 2016, a shooter with ISIS sympathies released fire on a discotheque in Orlando, Florida, that killed more than forty people. 

Conclusion

Through in this research paper, the researchers have tried to find out the links or the way Neocons responded to the postmodernism or postmodern philosophers' philosophies and then for the purpose to materialize their "postmodernism oriented vision" how they dominated American politics and especially foreign policy of U.S. Many of the Neocons' and postmodernists' concepts are compatible. For example, Leo Strauss' "Noble Lie" idea is compatible and comparable to the reality-free universe of the postmodern thinkers if we examine it in more detail. Postmodernism argues that we have no objective reality in this world since it is relative, and everyone perceives it according to their perspective. Studying Nietzsche's critique of Juan Stuart Mill reveals this theory. Nietzsche has rejected Mill's idea of a universal and objective Moral order. It indicates that all postmodern thinkers, including Nietzsche, held the same views.

We may also address the reality-oriented part of the thesis from Hegel's perspective. According to Hegel, "God came to this world in the contour of Reason." Now the invasion of reason to the world has paved the way for many international institutions at the international level, i.e., The establishment of the League of Nations after WWI and the U.N. after WWII. God, both in philosophy and religion, acts as a reality, and we know the approach of postmodernism towards reality, so indirectly, they rejected the existence of the international institutions. From this point, the ties between Neocons and postmodernism become clear. When the USA decided to attack Iraq after Neocons suggestion, they bypassed and rejected UNSC in the same way as rejected by the Postmodernists.

Another point that further booms this compatibility between the two. In his philosophy, Nietzsche presented the concept of "Superman" and was mentioned by Bertrand Russell in his book "The history of the Western Philosophy." Nietzsche has exempted superman from all sorts of restrictions, which means he would be hegemonic in it. Now, drag this portion of Nietzsche's philosophy into the contemporary world apply it to the approach of Neocons towards the status of the USA. Neocons had exempted the USA from all sorts of restrictions and asked the world to accept her as a hegemonic power and universal actor. She is not bound to follow any set of rules tables by the international institutions as happened in the case of America's invasion into Iraq, where they bypassed the resolution of UNSC.z

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