CJ/PS 55359/11 Seminar: Failures,

Responses,Lessons Learned

A new graduate course by:

Dr. Matthew Robinson

Fall 2005

9/11:The Project for a New

American Century(PNAC)

Dr. Matt RobinsonCJ/PS 5535:

“9/11 Seminar: Failures, Responses, Lessons Learned”Appalachian State University

What is PNAC?

• The Project for a New American Century (PNAC)

• Neo-conservative think tank based in Washington DC

• Founded in 1997

• Is the “end result” of more than a decade of writing and planning to change US foreign policy

PNAC

• Statement of Principles:

• “we need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future”

• “we need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values”

• “we need to promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad”

• “we need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.”

PNAC• January 1998 -- PNAC sent a letter to President

Clinton.

• “The policy of ‘containment’ of Saddam Hussein has been steadily eroding over the past several months. As recent events have demonstrated, we can no longer depend on our partners in the Gulf War coalition to continue to uphold the sanctions or to punish Saddam when he blocks or evades UN inspections.

• Our ability to ensure that Saddam Hussein is not producing weapons of mass destruction, therefore, has substantially diminished. Even if full inspections were eventually to resume, which now seems highly unlikely, experience has shown that it is difficult if not impossible to monitor Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons production …”

PNAC• “The lengthy period during which the

inspectors will have been unable to enter many Iraqi facilities has made it even less likely that they will be able to uncover all of Saddam’s secrets …

• As a result, in the not-too-distant future we will be unable to determine with any reasonable level of confidence whether Iraq does or does not possess such weapons.”

PNAC• OK … so WITHOUT inspectors, we will

be “unable to determine with any reasonable level of confidence whether Iraq does or does not possess such weapons.”

• Thus, WITH inspectors, we will be ABLE to determine with any reasonable level of confidence whether Iraq does or does not possess such weapons!

• Right?

PNAC• Weapons inspections teams returned to

Iraq prior to the current Iraq war.

• And they said???

• No evidence of WMDs in Iraq!

• (But the Bush Administration said they were certain Saddam Hussein had WMDs and that they even knew where they were!)

PNAC• “… Such uncertainty will, by itself, have a

seriously destabilizing effect on the entire Middle East. It hardly needs to be added that if Saddam does acquire the capability to deliver weapons of mass destruction, as he is almost certain to do if we continue along the present course, the safety of American troops in the region, of our friends and allies like Israel and the moderate Arab states, and a significant portion of the world’s supply of oil will all be put at hazard. As you have rightly declared, Mr. President, the security of the world in the first part of the 21st century will be determined largely by how we handle this threat.”

PNAC• “Given the magnitude of the threat, the

current policy, which depends for its success upon the steadfastness of our coalition partners and upon the cooperation of Saddam Hussein, is dangerously inadequate …

• The only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction …”

PNAC• “In the near term, this means a willingness

to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing …

• In the long term, it means removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power …”

PNAC• “That now needs to become the aim of

American foreign policy …

• We believe the US has the authority under existing UN resolutions to take the necessary steps, including military steps, to protect our vital interests in the Gulf …

• In any case, American policy cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council.”

PNAC

• PNAC believes in preemptive war and establishing PAX AMERICANA … an American empire …

• The group put forth the term “axis of evil” and identified Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as members …

• 18 signed the letter to President Clinton and and 10 were in the Bush Administration during the first term!!!

PNAC

PNAC

Eliot Abrams, Senior Director National Security Council, CFR member

Lewis Libby, Chief of Staff to Vice President, Senior Director National Security Council, CFR member

Dan Quayle, Former VP, Member of Defense Policy Board, Chief of Staff to Vice President, Senior Director National Security Council, CFR

Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida, brother of President

Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage,

Deputy Secretary of State

Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board

Richard Allen, Defense Policy Board, CFR

John Bolton, American Enterprise Institute VP

PNAC

Steven Cambone, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, Special Assistant to Secretary

Eliot Cohen, Defense Policy Board, Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, American Enterprise Institute

Paula Dobriansky, Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs, CFR

Aaron Friedberg, Deputy National Security Advisor to VP, CFR

Francis Fukayama, President’s Council on Bioethics, CFR

Zalmay Khalizad, Ambassador to Afghanistan, National Security Council, former risk analyst for Unocal

John Lehman, National Security Advisor, 9/11 Commissioner

Richard Perle, Defense Policy Board, American Enterprise Institute, CFR, Committee for the Liberation of Iraq

Peter Rodman, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs

PNAC

Henry Rowen, Defense Policy Board, CFR

James Woolsey, Defense Policy Board, Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, former Board member of weapons corporations

Dov Zakheim, Defense Department Comptroller, American Enterprise Institute, CFR

Robert Zoellick, US Trade Representative, former Enron consultant

Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, former Bechtel pipeline negotiator

Dick Cheney, Vice President, former American Enterprise Institute, former Secretary of Defense, former CEO of Halliburton

                       

William Kristol, American Enterprise Institute, Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, Editor the Weekly Standard

Yep, that’s also Donald Rumsfeld too, shaking Saddam Hussein’s hand in 1983 (“Way to gas those Iranians, Saddam, keep up the good work!”)

PNAC

• Some of these guys, such as Paul Wolfowitz, have been writing about taking on Saddam Hussein and Iraq, establishing an American Empire, and engaging in “multiple theatre wars” for years!

• They were seen as fringe nut cases -- that is -- until they got inside the Bush Administration

• Well, how could that be? I mean, Bush came off in his debates in 2000 as a moderate conservative, a compassionate conservative, and one who did not believe in nation building or aggressive foreign policy …

• So, how did they get in to the White House?

PNAC

• Do you remember how Dick Cheney, PNAC member, became Vice President?

• He was asked to head a committee to pick the VP and he chose himself! Remember?

• So, while Bush was saying on the campaign trail that the US should be humble in its foreign policy, should not go around the world telling other countries, “this is the way it has to be” … Cheney knew once they were elected PNAC would finally get into power!

• And they are!

PNAC

• But these guys could not just decide to change our foreign policy and make it happen without our consent, and they KNEW we would not go along with it …

• What had to happen first???

• September 2000 report, Rebuilding America’s Defenses, PNAC created what is now essentially US foreign policy!

PNAC

• Report is commissioned by future VP Dick Cheney, future Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, future Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and future Chief of Staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, Lewis Libby.

• Calls for Pax Americana, an American empire, with a greater emphasis on “Homeland Defense,” preparation for multiple wars, and transformation of the US armed forces.

PNAC

• Asserts the US right to secure global hegemony, and this depends, in no small part, to a US presence in the Middle East.

• … “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” (p. 14).

PNAC

• puts forth the “axis of evil”

• “… adversaries like Iran, Iraq, and North Korea are rushing to develop ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons as a deterrent to American intervention in regions they seek to dominate” (p. 4).

• “The current American peace will be short-lived if the United States becomes vulnerable to rogue powers with small, inexpensive arsenals of ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads or other weapons of mass destruction. We cannot allow North Korea, Iran, Iraq, or other similar states to undermine American leadership, intimidate American allies or threaten the American homeland itself” (p. 75).

PNAC

states the US right to topple hostile regimes

… “American military preeminence will continue to rest in significant part on the ability to maintain sufficient land forces to achieve political goals such as removing a dangerous and hostile regime when necessary” (p. 61).

PNAC

explicitly calls for the militarization of space and the implementation of “Star Wars” type programs to achieve this goal, as well as increased defense spending to the tune of $15 to 20 billion per year.

calls for the establishment of more US military bases overseas to serve as “deployment bases” and “forward operating bases,” as well as expansion of US nuclear weaponry.

PNAC

• In a section titled, “Creating America’s Dominant Force,” PNAC acknowledged that “… the process of transformation, even it brings revolutionary changed, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor” …

• One year later we got 9/11!

• And on 9/11, in his diary, President Bush wrote: “The Pearl Harbor of the 21st Century happened today ... we think it was Osama bin Laden”

PNAC

• What’s most significant is comparing the document, Rebuilding America’s Defenses, with the National Security Strategy of the United States (2002) (posted on White House website)

• In this document, the President puts forth the “Bush doctrine” and says the US will prevent any other nation from ever being able to challenge US power militarily or economically

• 9/11 gave PNAC the reason it needed to into action its plan for American dominance over the world …

• For control of oil …

• For global expansion of US military might!

PNAC

• PNAC also wrote a letter to President Bush calling for the overthrown of Saddam Hussein on September 20, 2001.

• “We agree with Secretary of State Powell’s recent statement that Saddam Hussein ‘is one of the leading terrorists on the face of the Earth….’ It may be that the Iraqi government provided assistance in some form to the recent attack on the United States. But even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the attack, any strategy aiming at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.”

PNAC

• “Failure to undertake such an effort will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism …

• The United States must therefore provide full military and financial support to the Iraqi opposition. American military force should be used to provide a “safe zone” in Iraq from which the opposition can operate. And American forces must be prepared to back up our commitment to the Iraqi opposition by all necessary means.”

PNAC

• “… any war against terrorism must target Hezbollah. We believe the administration should demand that Iran and Syria immediately cease all military, financial, and political support for Hezbollah and its operations …

• Should Iran and Syria refuse to comply, the administration should consider appropriate measures of retaliation against these known state sponsors of terrorism.”

PNAC

• “… Israel has been and remains America’s staunchest ally against international terrorism, especially in the Middle East. The United States should fully support our fellow democracy in its fight against terrorism …

• We should insist that the Palestinian Authority put a stop to terrorism emanating from territories under its control and imprison those planning terrorist attacks against Israel …

• Until the Palestinian Authority moves against terror, the United States should provide it no further assistance.”

PNAC

• “A serious and victorious war on terrorism will require a large increase in defense spending. Fighting this war may well require the United States to engage a well-armed foe, and will also require that we remain capable of defending our interests elsewhere in the world …

• We urge that there be no hesitation in requesting whatever funds for defense are needed to allow us to win this war.”

PNAC

• And it gets better …

• According to White House sources, the only man President Bush listens to on matters of foreign policy that is OUTSIDE of the White House is Michael Ledeen …

• Who?

• Well, you should also know him if you want to know the truth …

• Ph.D. in History and Philosophy from the Univ. of Wisconsin

• Former employee of the Pentagon, the State Department and the National Security Council.

• As consultant working with NSC head Robert McFarlane, involved in the transfer of arms to Iran during the Iran-Contra affair.

• Most influential book is The War Against the Terror Masters: Why It Happened. Where We Are Now. How We'll Win.

• Ledeen's ideas are repeated daily by such figures as Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz.

Michael Ledeen

• Believes that violence in the service of the spread of democracy is America's manifest destiny. Consequently, he has become the philosophical legitimator of the American occupation of Iraq.

• Is now calling for regime change beyond Iraq: "the time for diplomacy is at an end; it is time for a free Iran, free Syria and free Lebanon” ("Time to Focus on Iran -- The Mother of Modern Terrorism" for the the policy forum of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs on April 30)

Michael Ledeen

• Set up the Center for Democracy in Iran (CDI), an action group focusing on producing regime change in Iran.

• The driving philosophical force behind the neoconservative movement and the military actions it has spawned.

• Says: "Creative destruction is our middle name. We do it automatically ... it is time once again to export the democratic revolution.”

• Iraq, Iran and Syria are the first and foremost nations where we should impose democracy by force.

• The process by which this should be achieved is a violent one, termed "total war."

Michael Ledeen

PNAC

• And it gets better …

• Many of these men studied under one person in college … or another who studied under the same person in college …

• I know what you are thinking … “those darn liberal professors!”

• Nope, hardly.

• Ever heard of Leo Srauss?

•Former Professor of Political Philosophy, University of Chicago (1949-1967)

• Prominent Washington players are Strauss' protégés: Paul Wolfowitz; Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; Judge Robert Bork; neo-con propagandist and former Dan Quayle chief of staff, William Kristol; former Secretary of Education William Bennett; the National Review publisher William F. Buckley; former Reagan Administration official Alan Keyes; current White House bio-ethics advisor Francis Fukuyama; Attorney General John Ashcroft … (source: author Shadia B. Drury, 1997 Leo Strauss and the American Right)

Leo Strauss

• Earlier Strauss allies and protégés in launching the post-World War II neo-conservative movement were Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Samuel Huntington, Seymour Martin Lipset, Daniel Bell, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and James Q. Wilson.

• Believed elites should control access to essential truths about society and history

• Believed in “perpetual war” to advance nationalism.

• Promoted lying to the people if for the greater good of achieving government goals.

Leo Strauss

• Here is one of PNAC’s founders …

•“This is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq... this is entirely the wrong way to go about it. If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely and we don’t try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war... our children will sing great songs about us years from now.”

-- Richard Perle, one of the founders of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

A quote …

• Were we lied to when it came to Iraq?

• Weapons of mass destruction?

• Yellow cake uranium from Africa?

• Mushroom clouds?

• Where did we get much of this information???

Lies …

Ahmed Chalabi

• This is the guy the neo-cons wanted to be the next President of Iraq!

• Only, the information was FALSE and he was passing on secret information to Iran!