What was the PNAC - the Project for the New American Century – an organisation with members as illustrious as Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz? What is their legacy? Should we thank them?

http://web.archive.org/web/200708101...principles.htm
June 3, 1997 Statement of Principles of the PNAC
# Conservatives have criticized the incoherent policies of the Clinton Administration.
# We seem to have forgotten the essential elements of the Reagan Administration's success: a military that is strong and ready to meet both present and future challenges; a foreign policy that boldly and purposefully promotes American principles abroad; and national leadership that accepts the United States' global responsibilities.
# Such a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity may not be fashionable today. But it is necessary if the United States is to build on the successes of this past century and to ensure our security and our greatness in the next.

What is /was PNAC’s mission? It seeked to establish what they call 'Pax Americana' across the globe. Essentially, their goal is to transform America, the sole remaining superpower, into a planetary empire by force of arms. A report released by PNAC in September of 2000 entitled 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' codifies this plan, which requires a massive increase in defense spending and the fighting of several major theater wars in order to establish American dominance. Note - several.

http://web.archive.org/web/200708101...ntonletter.htm
January 26, 1998 PNAC letter to President Clinton
# In your upcoming State of the Union Address, you have an opportunity to chart a clear and determined course for meeting this threat (Iraq). 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.
# 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.
# 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
# In any case, American policy cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council.
# 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.

If that sounds familiar it is because Georgie the Parrot repeated the same sentiments five years later, after having assured Congress that approval of his request for authorization to embark on a war did not mean that an invasion was inevitable. Sheez!! Add his name to the original three. Clinton seems to have been smarter with much more foresight.

September 20, 2001 PNAC letter to President Bush
# The United States must therefore provide full military and financial support to the Iraqi opposition.

This was exactly the reverse of the decision in 1982 to provide support to Saddam Hussein. Does that sound a bit long in the tooth to be significant? Well it shouldn’t because many PNAC members, most strikingly Donald Rumsfeld, were prominent in both campaigns. So we might be forgiven for expecting the hypocritical stance to continue. And it did.

PNAC funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to a Hussein opposition group called the Iraqi National Congress, and to Iraq's heir-apparent, Ahmed Chalabi, despite the fact that Chalabi was sentenced in absentia by a Jordanian court to 22 years in prison on 31 counts of bank fraud. Chalabi and the INC have, over the years, gathered support for their cause by promising oil contracts to anyone that would help to put them in power in Iraq. Oh-oh, the “O” word.

So what are the new successes that PNAC was based on in June 1997? It is difficult not to link most of the following to the financial, military and political consequences of their “magnum opus” - Iraq.

1) The dollar has dropped 46% against the Euro. OUCH!!
2) The US national debt has increased from 6.2 trillion dollars (September 2002) to 9.5 trillion dollars last Friday, and increase of 53.2%
3) The price of crude went from $US 24 per barrel to $US 148 over this period, an increase of 617%
4) Over 60 000 iraqi civilians have died as a direct result of the invasion. In fact the Brookings Institution (Washington) puts the figure at 151 000.
5) Over 4000 US military have died, 43% more than the deaths in 911.
6) Since September 2002 the number of former “friends” of the current US regime in non-US Western countries is estimated by the Sydney Herald to have dropped to 32%. One consolation that this is significantly higher than Dubya’s current approval rating in the US.

Thanks guys. As the top, the créme de la créme, of conservative neocon US think tanks, we sure owe you a lot.
/sarcasm

Quote:

What do we owe Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz

A wedgie, a noogie, an atomic wedgie, a zoobie (tittie twister), a swirly, a pink belly, a charlie horse, ten lashes with a rat-tailed towel (wet of course), a short sheeted bed, and the old "lotion on the toilet seat" trick. Repeat until the subjects become flinchy and humble.

Welcome aboard, Whatthe.

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"When I'm in command, every mission is a suicide mission!" -Capt. Zapp Branigan
The United Church of the Latter Day Tangential Tarts

A thankyou for preventing numerous terrorist attacks after 9/11.

Oh, yeah, I remember the years before 9/11, when it was one terrorist attack after another! [/sarcasm]

Man, the right wing propaganda/bull**** machine just keeps spewing the same garbage out over and over again, without ever bothering to forward a reasoned argument to back up anything they say!

there were numerous attacks, the first world trade center attack, the USS Cole, and others and what Clinton do? Nothing.

What do we owe Cheney? Either an idiot award for predicting, or a liar award for claiming, the Iraq war would last 1 to 2 months:

The Imperial Presidency

"Vice President Dick Cheney is trying to persuade Dick Armey, the Republican House majority leader, who was skeptical about a war on Iraq, in a private meeting in September 2002: 'We have great information. They’re going to welcome us. It’ll be like the American Army going through the streets of Paris. They’re sitting there ready to form a new government. The people will be so happy with their freedoms that we’ll probably back ourselves out of there within a month or two.'"

What do we owe Rumsfeld? Another idiot award for backing policies which increased government spending, when he knew they had already "lost" $2.3 trillion:

"According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions." - Donald Rumsfeld, 2002

Trillions of dollars are missing from the US government. What's going on? Where is the money? How could this happen? Where are the checks and balances? How much more has gone missing? What would happen if a corporation failed to pass an audit like this? Or a taxpayer? Who is responsible for this? Would your banks continue to handle your bank account if you behaved like this? Would your investors continue to buy your securities if you behaved like this? Learn more in the articles below.

Link 1

Link 2

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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Schopenhauer

I think we owe them the finest war crimes trial we can provide. But before that, a few swift kicks to the 'nads in steel-toed boots would be appropriate, don't you think?

Like I said, one right after another! I feel sooooo much safer with Bush at the helm! [/sarcasm]

Absolutely!