2008 Woodie Awards
PNAC and the Neoconservative Agenda
Chris Pille
Issue date: 11/12/03 Section: Opinion
What do the increased U.S. military presence in the Middle East, removal of Saddam Hussein's regime, and multiple military conflicts fought since 9/11 have in common? Give up?
All were planned by members of the current presidential administration even before Bush took power in January 2001.
"Not since Mein Kampf has a geopolitical punch been so blatantly telegraphed, years ahead of the blow," writes Chris Floyd in the Moscow Times.
Enter the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), a neoconservative think tank which intends, according to its website, "to explain what American world leadership entails." It has included among its ranks Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, and Zalmay Khalilzad, the special envoy to both Afghanistan and the Iraqi opposition to Saddam Hussein.
Foreign policy commentator Jim Lobe writes: "Founded formally in 1997, PNAC works mainly as a front group for the coalition of neo-conservatives, hard-right Republicans, and Christian Right activists behind what has come to be called Bush's 'neo-imperialist' policies."
Neoconservatives believe the U.S. should restructure the Middle East and supplant dictators around the world, using preemptive strikes against countries deemed potential threats. Traditional conservatives, like Heritage Foundation fellow John C. Hulsman, suggest that this will lead to "endless war."
In September 2000, PNAC published a 90-page strategy report entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century." According to its introduction, the report was heavily influenced by a report drafted in 1992 which "provided a blueprint for maintaining U.S. preeminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests." The 1992 draft also recommended a strategy of preemption to deal with the threat of states possessing nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons.
Senior officials said at the time that both Paul Wolfowitz, then Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense, played substantial roles in the 1992 draft's creation and endorsed its principal views.
After the draft was leaked to the press, the highly criticized idea of such an aggressive U.S. role in international affairs was shelved, resurfacing eight years later in PNAC's September 2000 report.
In addition to including and "building upon" the controversial ideas from the 1992 draft, the PNAC report calls for a massive increase in defense spending, the forceful removal of dangerous and hostile regimes, and for U.S. military forces to "fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars."
"While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification," reads the 2000 report, "the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."
The PNAC neocons have wanted the U.S. to invade Iraq for years. In 1998 the PNAC sent a letter to President Clinton calling for the removal of Saddam's regime even if the UN Security Council did not give their full support. Among the signatories to the letter were eight current members of the Bush administration, including Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Armitage, and Paul Wolfowitz.
In the direct aftermath of 9/11, neocons tried to link the attacks to Saddam Hussein, though all the evidence pointed to Osama bin Laden. Notes taken by Rumsfeld's aides mere hours after the attacks quote him as saying he wanted "best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time. Not only UBL [Osama bin Laden]."
"Go massive," the notes quote Rumsfeld as saying. "Sweep it all up. Things related and not."
The 2000 report notes that the process of military expansion and transformation in the years to come "is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor."
Prophetic. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks the Bush administration took many of the report's suggestions regarding a national missile defense system, withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the idea of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea being major threats to U.S. interests (Axis of Evil, anyone?).
The influence of neoconservative thought on Bush's policies must not be underestimated. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" was thrown out the window on the morning of September 11, 2001, helped along by the numerous neoconservative warhawks in his administration who used the 9/11 attacks to justify the implementation of aggressive strategies they themselves designed even before Bush took the presidency.
In September 2002, the official National Security Strategy of the United States of America switched from a doctrine of deterring potential threats to one of preemption. Meaning that what we went through this year with Iraq, goaded on by neocon PNACers, will likely be repeated many times in the future.
As long as Bush stays president, that is.
All were planned by members of the current presidential administration even before Bush took power in January 2001.
"Not since Mein Kampf has a geopolitical punch been so blatantly telegraphed, years ahead of the blow," writes Chris Floyd in the Moscow Times.
Enter the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), a neoconservative think tank which intends, according to its website, "to explain what American world leadership entails." It has included among its ranks Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, and Zalmay Khalilzad, the special envoy to both Afghanistan and the Iraqi opposition to Saddam Hussein.
Foreign policy commentator Jim Lobe writes: "Founded formally in 1997, PNAC works mainly as a front group for the coalition of neo-conservatives, hard-right Republicans, and Christian Right activists behind what has come to be called Bush's 'neo-imperialist' policies."
Neoconservatives believe the U.S. should restructure the Middle East and supplant dictators around the world, using preemptive strikes against countries deemed potential threats. Traditional conservatives, like Heritage Foundation fellow John C. Hulsman, suggest that this will lead to "endless war."
In September 2000, PNAC published a 90-page strategy report entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century." According to its introduction, the report was heavily influenced by a report drafted in 1992 which "provided a blueprint for maintaining U.S. preeminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests." The 1992 draft also recommended a strategy of preemption to deal with the threat of states possessing nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons.
Senior officials said at the time that both Paul Wolfowitz, then Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense, played substantial roles in the 1992 draft's creation and endorsed its principal views.
After the draft was leaked to the press, the highly criticized idea of such an aggressive U.S. role in international affairs was shelved, resurfacing eight years later in PNAC's September 2000 report.
In addition to including and "building upon" the controversial ideas from the 1992 draft, the PNAC report calls for a massive increase in defense spending, the forceful removal of dangerous and hostile regimes, and for U.S. military forces to "fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars."
"While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification," reads the 2000 report, "the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."
The PNAC neocons have wanted the U.S. to invade Iraq for years. In 1998 the PNAC sent a letter to President Clinton calling for the removal of Saddam's regime even if the UN Security Council did not give their full support. Among the signatories to the letter were eight current members of the Bush administration, including Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Armitage, and Paul Wolfowitz.
In the direct aftermath of 9/11, neocons tried to link the attacks to Saddam Hussein, though all the evidence pointed to Osama bin Laden. Notes taken by Rumsfeld's aides mere hours after the attacks quote him as saying he wanted "best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at same time. Not only UBL [Osama bin Laden]."
"Go massive," the notes quote Rumsfeld as saying. "Sweep it all up. Things related and not."
The 2000 report notes that the process of military expansion and transformation in the years to come "is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor."
Prophetic. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks the Bush administration took many of the report's suggestions regarding a national missile defense system, withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and the idea of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea being major threats to U.S. interests (Axis of Evil, anyone?).
The influence of neoconservative thought on Bush's policies must not be underestimated. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" was thrown out the window on the morning of September 11, 2001, helped along by the numerous neoconservative warhawks in his administration who used the 9/11 attacks to justify the implementation of aggressive strategies they themselves designed even before Bush took the presidency.
In September 2002, the official National Security Strategy of the United States of America switched from a doctrine of deterring potential threats to one of preemption. Meaning that what we went through this year with Iraq, goaded on by neocon PNACers, will likely be repeated many times in the future.
As long as Bush stays president, that is.
Be the first to comment on this story