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Right-Wing Influence On US Policy
Dear MoveOn Bulletin subscriber, After a hiatus, the bulletin is back. We re-launch this week with a great bulletin edited by Noah Winer on the Project for the New American Century -- a conservative American think tank that is in many ways responsible for the war on Iraq. I hope you enjoy it. --Eli
THE PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURYFriday, May 9, 2003 Noah T. Winer, Editor noah.winer@moveon.org Subscribe online at: You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking here: SPECIAL FEATURE: INTERVIEW SENATOR BYRD What are your questions for Senator Byrd? We'll ask MoveOn users' five
favorite questions on Wednesday, and report the Senator's answers in the
next issue. Post your questions and review others' at: CONTENTS: ------------------------------ INTRODUCTION: AMERICAN LEADERSHIP, AMERICAN EMPIRE The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) is a Washington-based neo-conservative think-tank founded in 1997 to "rally support for American global leadership." PNAC's agenda runs far deeper than regime change in Iraq. Its statement of principles begins with the assertion that "American foreign and defense policy is adrift" and calls for "a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity." While their tone is high-minded, their proposal is unilateral military intervention to protect against threats to America's status as the lone global superpower. The statement is signed by such influential figures as Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Dan Quayle, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz. PNAC is not alone, nor did it arise from new wells of power. Most of the founding members of PNAC held posts in the Reagan or elder Bush administration and other neo-conservative think-tanks, publications, and advocacy groups. The effect of PNAC's ideology is great on Bush -- the presidential candidate who promised a "humble," isolationist foreign policy. The events of September 11, 2001 provided a window of opportunity for furthering PNAC's agenda of American empire. Understanding that agenda can help us anticipate the Bush administration's next steps and organize accordingly. ------------------------------ ONE LINK ------------------------------ FORMING THE BUSH DOCTRINE In 1992, Paul Wolfowitz, then-Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, authored an internal policy brief on America's military posture in the post-Cold War era: to prevent the emergence of a new rival power through preemption rather than containment and acting unilaterally if necessary to protect U.S. interests. When a draft was leaked to the press, controversy erupted and the report had to be softened. The web accompaniment to the PBS Frontline special "The War Behind Closed
Doors" features an excellent chronology showing how Wolfowitz's draft
would become the basis of the Bush Doctrine. ------------------------------ PAX AMERICANA RAD rejects cuts in defense spending, insisting that "Preserving the desirable strategic situation in which the United States now finds itself requires a globally preeminent military capability both today and in the future." Core missions for the U.S. military include the ability to "fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars" and to reposition permanent forces in Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia. Other samples from RAD: "The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein." "At present the United States faces no global rival. America's grand strategy should aim to preserve and extend this advantageous position as far into the future as possible." "[N]ew methods of attack -- electronic, 'non-lethal,' biological -- will be more widely available ... 'combat' likely will take place in new dimensions: in space, 'cyber-space,' and perhaps the world of microbes ... advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool." In this Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece, Jay Bookman compares
"Rebuilding America's Defenses" with the current Bush defense policy. You can read the entire document on PNAC's website. ------------------------------ SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 Shortly after September 11, PNAC sent a letter to President Bush welcoming
his call for "a broad and sustained campaign" and encouraging the removal
of Saddam even if Iraq could not be directly linked to the attacks. ------------------------------ WHO'S STEERING THIS SHIP? PAUL WOLFOWITZ is Deputy Defense Secretary, second-in-command at the
Pentagon. Wolfowitz was promoting regime change in Iraq and a strategy
of preemptive attack in 1992, but the elder Bush rejected his views as
too radical. This is an excellent brief from the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace. RICHARD PERLE was Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration
and a foreign policy adviser in George W. Bush's presidential campaign.
He accepted Rumsfeld's offer to chair the Defense Policy Board, transforming
it from obscurity to influence. In March, Perle resigned as chairman after
a controversial lobbying scandal, but remains on the Board as a member. WILLIAM KRISTOL is editor of The Weekly Standard, a conservative political
magazine with a small but elite readership, funded by Rupert Murdoch.
The son of neo-conservative founding father Irving Kristol, he is the
president of PNAC. Other important participants are Vice-President Dick Cheney; Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; Iran-contra scandal convict Elliott Abrams, now Director of Middle East Affairs for the National Security Council; Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan; and special presidential envoy to Afghanistan and Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. A fairly complete list of PNAC participants can be found here: ------------------------------ WHO PAYS THE BILLS? ------------------------------ PAX ISRAELICA? This essay describes many of the familiar neo-conservatives as having
"dual loyalties," making policy decisions in the interests of the State
of Israel as much as the United States. ------------------------------ POST-WAR IRAQ ------------------------------ NEO-CONSERVATISM Similar overlap is found among all the neo-conservative think-tanks -- Hudson Institute, Center for Security Policy, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Middle East Forum, and Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs -- giving the agenda of a few political elites the appearance of widespread agreement. ------------------------------ WHAT NEXT -- SYRIA? IRAN? ------------------------------ CHALLENGING THE PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY ------------------------------ CONCLUSION Money makes it easy to organize networks and gain political influence; control of the media limits our ability to consider the various options America has for handling crises in the international community. The work we are doing as MoveOn members is organizing without massive wealth and educating without owning the media. Our work is to vocalize the love of democratic decision-making shared by all people, clearly and with the most complete information. Please let us know what information you need to do this work, and we will do our best to make it available through the bulletin. ------------------------------ CREDITS Editing team: ------------------------------ ABOUT THE MOVEON BULLETIN AND MOVEON.ORG MoveOn.org is an issue-oriented, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization
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