CJ/PS 5535
9/11 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 Robinson
CJ/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
Jeb Bush, Governor of
Florida, brother of
President
Kenneth Adelman,
Defense Policy Board
Lewis Libby, Chief of
Staff to Vice President,
Senior Director National
Security Council, CFR
member
Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy
Secretary of Defense
Richard Allen, Defense
Policy Board, CFR
Dan Quayle, Former VP,
Member of Defense
Policy Board, Chief of
Staff to Vice President,
Senior Director National
Security Council, CFR
Richard Armitage,
Deputy Secretary of State
John Bolton, American
Enterprise Institute VP
PNAC
Steven Cambone,
Undersecretary of
Defense for Intelligence,
Special Assistant to
Secretary
Eliot Cohen, Defense
Paula Dobriansky,
Policy Board, Committee Undersecretary of State
for the Liberation of Iraq, for Global Affairs, CFR
American Enterprise
Institute
Aaron Friedberg, Deputy Francis Fukayama,
National Security Advisor President’s Council on
Bioethics, CFR
to VP, CFR
Richard Perle, Defense
Policy Board, American
John Lehman, National
Enterprise Institute, CFR,
Security Advisor, 9/11
Committee for the
Commissioner
Liberation of Iraq
Zalmay Khalizad,
Ambassador to
Afghanistan, National
Security Council, former
risk analyst for Unocal
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
Robert Zoellick, US
Trade Representative,
former Enron consultant
Donald Rumsfeld,
Secretary of Defense,
former Bechtel pipeline
negotiator
Dov Zakheim, Defense
Department Comptroller,
American Enterprise
Institute, CFR
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!”)
William Kristol, American
Enterprise Institute, Committee Dick Cheney, Vice President, former American
for the Liberation of Iraq, Editor Enterprise Institute, former Secretary of Defense
former CEO of Halliburton
the Weekly Standard
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 shortlived 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 wellarmed 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 …
Michael Ledeen
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."
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?
Leo Strauss
•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 neoconservative 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.
A quote …
•
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).
Lies …
•
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???
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!