Chickenhawks planned Iraq war in 1992. What's this about an Al Qaeda connection?
Harry Hope
From The New York Times, 3/2/03:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/opinion/02DOWD.html
Bush Ex Machina
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON --
George W. Bush has often talked wickedly about his days as the black
sheep of a blue-blooded, mahogany-paneled family.
But the younger rebellion pales before the adult revolt, now sparking
epochal changes.
The president is about to upend the internationalist order nurtured by
his father and grandfather, replacing the Bush code of noblesse oblige
with one of force majeure.
Bush 41, a doting dad, would never disagree with his son in public,
but in a speech at Tufts last week, he defended his decision to leave
Saddam Hussein in power after Desert Storm.
"If we had tried to go in there and created more instability in Iraq,
I think it would have been very bad for the neighborhood," he told the
crowd of 4,800.
(Was he referring to Baghdad or Kennebunkport?)
He conceded that getting a coalition together is harder now, because
the evidence about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction is "a little
fuzzier" than was his evident invasion of Kuwait.
But 41 still thinks coalitions work:
"The more pressure there is, the more chance this matter will be
resolved in a peaceful manner."
(Maybe he should enter the Democratic primary.)
At the very same moment the father was pushing peace, the son was
treating the war as a fait accompli.
At the American Enterprise Institute, he finally coughed up the real
reason for war: trickle-down democracy.
Unable to handcuff Osama and Saddam, he soft-pedaled his previous cry
for a war of retribution for 9/11.
Now he was being more forthright, calling for a war of re-engineering.
"A new regime in Iraq would serve as a dramatic and inspiring example
of freedom for other nations in the region," he said, adding:
"Success in Iraq could also begin a new stage for Middle Eastern
peace, and set in motion progress towards a truly democratic
Palestinian state."
Conservatives began drawing up steroid-fueled plans to reorder the
world a decade ago, imperial blueprints fantastical enough to make
"Star Wars" look achievable.
In 1992, Dick Cheney, the defense secretary for Bush 41, and his
aides, Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby, drafted a document asserting
that America should prepare to cast off formal alliances and throw its
military weight around to prevent the rise of any "potential future
global competitor" and to preclude the spread of nuclear weapons.
The solipsistic grandiosity of the plan was offputting to 41, who
loved nothing better than chatting up the other members of the global
club.
To Poppy and Colin Powell, this looked like voodoo foreign policy, and
they splashed cold water on it.
In 1996, Richard Perle, now a Pentagon adviser, and Douglas Feith, now
a Rumsfeld aide, helped write a report about how Israel could
transcend the problems with the Palestinians by changing the "balance
of power" in the Middle East, and by replacing Saddam.
The hawks saw their big chance after 9/11, but they feared that it
would be hard to sell a eschatological scheme to stomp out Islamic
terrorism by recreating the Arab world.
So they found Saddam guilty of a crime he could commit later: helping
Osama unleash hell on us.
Mr. Bush is his father's son in his "trust us, we know best" attitude.
After obscuring the real reasons for war, the Bushies are now
obscuring the Pentagon's assessments of the cost of war ($60 billion
to $200 billion?), the size of the occupation force (100,000 to
400,000?) and the length of time American troops will stay in Iraq (2
to 10 years?).
A Delphic Mr. Wolfowitz tried to blow off House Democrats who pressed
him on these issues:
"We will stay as long as necessary and leave as soon as possible."
Rahm Emanuel, a congressman from Chicago, chided Mr. Wolfowitz,
saying, "In the very week that we negotiated with Turkey, the
administration also told the governors there wasn't any more money for
education and health care."
The president's humongously expensive tax cuts leave less for all
programs except the military.
Asked if we should give up the tax cut to underwrite the war, the
president demurred, replying, "Americans are paying the bill."
Nobody knows if the Bush team's hubristic vision for redrawing the
Middle East map will end up tamping down terrorism or inflaming it.
Either way, deus ex machina doesn't come cheap.
_____________________________________________________
Obfuscation is a right-wing chickenhawk tradition.
Harry
BRAVEHAWK
"Harry Hope" <riv...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
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Doug Bashford
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/opinion/02DOWD.html
Bush Ex Machina
_____________________________________________________
Harry
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On Sun, 02 Mar 2003 Harry Hope wrote about:
Chickenhawks planned Iraq war in 1992. What's this about an Al Qaeda
connection?