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Who Are the Neoconservatives Backing Hillary Clinton?

© REUTERS / Mark Kauzlarich Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton addresses the Democratic National Convention via a live video feed from New York during the second night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, July 26, 2016.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton addresses the Democratic National Convention via a live video feed from New York during the second night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, July 26, 2016. - Sputnik International
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Leading Neoconservatives have expressed their support for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, despite many of them hailing from the Republican Party.

Neoconservative leaders, such as Robert Kagan who founded the infamous think-tank "Project for the New American Century," which fiercely supported the invasion of Iraq, told the Intercept that: "I would say all Republican foreign policy professionals are anti-Trump."

Max Boot, an ardent supporter of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, and a prominent Neoconservative wrote in the Weekly Standard that a "Trump presidency would represent the death knell of America as a great power," alluding to Trump's stated position of not dragging America into more overseas wars, particularly in the Middle East.

Trump's past comments on foreign policy have run contrary to those of Neoconservatives like Boot and Kagan, who advocate for intervention in Syria, something which Republican candidate Donald Trump has been ambivalent about.

Trump has said that the US has "bigger problems than Assad." The US, according to him, should "stop nation-building. We can't do it. We have to build our own nation."

He has also lambasted the invasion of Iraq: "We got rid of Saddam, and now it's a disaster.

"It was a lot better than it is right now," Trump said.

At a Foreign Policy Professionals for Hillary gathering Kagan was quoted as saying that: "I would say that a majority of people in my circle will vote for Hillary."

Sputnik spoke to Glasgow Caledonian University's Dr Mark McLay about why Neoconservatives who are overwhelmingly Republican would support Democrat Clinton.

"Donald Trump's main approach is American first, which reminds many people of an organization of the same name in the 1930s that tried to stop America becoming involved in WW2. He talks about moving back from the rest of the world and focusing on America. So I think Trump scares these Neoconservatives, who are very pro-intervention and believe it is America's role to act as the world's policeman. However Hillary Clinton has always been more hawkish in her foreign policy, which the Neoconservatives like," Dr McLay told Sputnik.  

"She was the main driver behind president Obama's decision to get involved in Libya, while Obama is now on record as saying that its one of his biggest foreign policy regrets.

"She was also instrumental while secretary of state in bringing lots of countries together to impose harsh sanctions on Iran."

The Neoconservative movement is credited with championing and launching the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a move which earned it widespread condemnation in years to come within liberal circles in the United States and globally.    

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