The chicken hawks

The Project for the New American Century letter to then President Bill Clinton:

January 26, 1998

The Honorable William J. Clinton
President of the United States
Washington, DC

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing you because we are convinced that current American policy toward Iraq is not succeeding, and that we may soon face a threat in the Middle East more serious than any we have known since the end of the Cold War. In your upcoming State of the Union Address, you have an opportunity to chart a clear and determined course for meeting this threat. We urge you to seize that opportunity, and to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power. We stand ready to offer our full support in this difficult but necessary endeavor.

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. 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.

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.

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. 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. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy.

We urge you to articulate this aim, and to turn your Administration's attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam's regime from power. This will require a full complement of diplomatic, political and military efforts. Although we are fully aware of the dangers and difficulties in implementing this policy, we believe the dangers of failing to do so are far greater. We believe the U.S. 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.

We urge you to act decisively. If you act now to end the threat of weapons of mass destruction against the U.S. or its allies, you will be acting in the most fundamental national security interests of the country. If we accept a course of weakness and drift, we put our interests and our future at risk.

Sincerely,

Elliott Abrams, Special Assistant to the President, 2001-
Richard L. Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State 2001-2005
William J. Bennett, author The Book of Virtues, high stakes gambler
Jeffrey Bergner, Assistant Secretary of State, 2005-
John Bolton, Under Secretary of State and UN Ambassador 2001-2006
Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State, 2001-2007
Francis Fukuyama, Member President's Biocouncil on Ethics, 2001-2005
Robert Kagan, foriegn policy advisor to John McCain
Zalmay Khalilzad. U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the UN, 2003-
William Kristol, sycophant
Richard Perle, Chairman of the Board, Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, 2001-2003
Peter W. Rodman, Assistant Secretary of Defense, 2001-2007
Donald Rumsfeld, SECDEF, 2001-2006
William Schneider, Jr., Civilian advisor to Rumsfeld
Vin Weber, lobbyist
Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy SECDEF, 2001-2005 and President of the World Bank
R. James Woolsey, advisor to John McCain
Robert B. Zoellick, Deputy Secretary of State and President of the World Bank

Other notable members of PNAC: Dick Cheney and "Scooter" Libby

PNAC has apparently disbanded, their mission having been accomplished.

Tipping Points

>climbs atop high horse<
Here we are again at a career tipping point. Or maybe just beyond the tipping point. I foresee nothing but badness in front of me in my current workspace. The glory days are done and gone. Nothing left but a slow miserable attrition until only a glimmer of the past remains. The natural effect of general decay. Such a good program wasted. Smart people run off and the walking dead or sycophants left behind. Radiated men eating the flesh of radiating men. And sometimes I wonder if that's not what some people want. Maybe it got too hard for them to manage and they'd rather it collapse than take on the challenge? Triumph through ignorance of the problems. Cutting off the nose to spite the face? I don't know what their motivations are. I really like what my job could be, but they've buried it under so much bullshit it's hard to remember what our mission should be. Making some sailors job as easy as it can be in unthinkable situations. So that's what I'm going to seek out, a place where they haven't forgotten who the real customers are and what it is we should be doing for them instead of doing to each other. I only hope such a place still exists in the government.
>/dismounts high horse<

television is a brain suck

it really is hazardous to your health and should come with warning labels. that tube will destroy brain cells as bad as that sweet cheeba does. of course the internet may be an even bigger brain suck, but somehow it feels more productive because a computer is smarter than a tv, so thus and therefore i must be smarter than a tv watcher. but have you ever played with facebook? what a time suck! how do kids get anything accomplished when they've got texting and social networking internet sites and all that jazz at their fingertips 24/7? the school day don't end when the last bell rings, you can sit at home and torture each other well into the wee hours of the night. glad i was born too long ago to deal with that crap.
i bought some cool liquor glasses not because i drink much liquor but because they were wicked awesome and half price and so now i'm thinking about taking up drinking liquor neat. scotch? tequila? homemade corn whiskey?

Good thought

It is important to recognize the power of our emotions--and to take responsibility for them by creating a light and positive atmosphere around ourselves. This attitude of joy that we create helps alleviate states of hopelessness, loneliness, and despair. Our relationships with others thus naturally improve, and little by little the whole of society becomes more positive and balanced.
- Tarthang Tulku

Did you know?

It is winter in New Zealand.

Not raining yet.

Grillin'

Charcoal ain't cooperating and rain is approaching. Will he cook the
pork chops in time? Stay tuned...