The Project for the New American Century.
Extracted from:
Of Gods and Mortals and Empire
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
www.truthout.com
Friday 21 February 2003
"To plunder, to slaughter, to steal,
these things they misname empire;
and where they make a wilderness,
they call it peace."
- Tacitus
Allow me to introduce PNAC The Project for the New American Century.
The Project for the New American Century, or
PNAC, is a Washington-based think tank created in 1997.
The fundamental essence of PNAC's ideology can be
found in a White Paper produced in September of 2000 entitled
"Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and
Resources for a New Century." In it, PNAC outlines
what is required of America to create the global empire they envision.
According to PNAC, America must:
* Reposition permanently based forces to Southern Europe,
Southeast Asia and the Middle East;
* Modernize U.S. forces, including enhancing our fighter aircraft,
submarine and surface fleet capabilities;
* Develop and deploy a global missile defense system,
and develop a strategic dominance of space;
* Control the "International Commons" of cyberspace;
* Increase defense spending to a minimum of 3.8 percent
of gross domestic product, up from the 3 percent currently spent.
Most ominously, this PNAC document described four
"Core Missions" for the American military. The two central requirements
are for American forces to "fight and decisively
win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars," and
to "perform the 'constabulary' duties associated with shaping the
security environment in critical regions." Note well that
PNAC does not want America to be prepared to fight
simultaneous major wars. That is old school. In order to bring this plan
to fruition, the military must fight these wars one way
or the other to establish American dominance for all to see.
Above all else, PNAC desires and demands one thing: The
establishment of a global American empire to bend
the will of all nations. They chafe at the idea that the United States,
the last remaining superpower, does not do more by way
of economic and military force to bring the rest of
the world under the umbrella of a new socio-economic Pax Americana.
Why is this important? After all, wacky think tanks are
a cottage industry in Washington, DC. They are a dime a dozen.
In what way does PNAC stand above the other groups that
would set American foreign policy if they could?
Two events brought PNAC into the mainstream of American government:
the disputed election of George W. Bush, and the attacks of
September 11th. When Bush assumed the Presidency,
the men who created and nurtured the imperial dreams of PNAC
became the men who run the Pentagon, the Defense Department
and the White House. When the Towers came down, these men saw,
at long last, their chance to turn their White Papers into substantive
policy.
Vice President Dick Cheney is a founding member of PNAC,
along with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Defense Policy
Board chairman Richard Perle. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
is the ideological father of the group. Bruce Jackson, a PNAC director,
served as a Pentagon official for Ronald Reagan before leaving
government service to take a leading position with
the weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
PNAC is staffed by men who previously served with
groups like Friends of the Democratic Center in Central America, which
supported America's bloody gamesmanship in
Nicaragua and El Salvador, and with groups like The
Committee for the Present Danger, which spent years advocating that a
nuclear war with the Soviet Union was "winnable."
PNAC has recently given birth to a new group,
The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq,
which met with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
in order to formulate a plan to "educate" the American populace
about the need for war in Iraq. CLI has funneled
millions of taxpayer dollars to support the Iraqi National Congress
and the Iraqi heir presumptive, Ahmed Chalabi.
Chalabi was sentenced in absentia by a Jordanian court in 1992
to 22 years in prison for bank fraud after the collapse of Petra Bank,
which he founded in 1977. Chalabi has not set foot in Iraq
since 1956, but his Enron-like business credentials apparently
make him a good match for the Bush administration's plans.
PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses" report is
the institutionalization of plans and ideologies that have been
formulated for decades by the men currently running
American government. The PNAC Statement of Principles
is signed by Cheney, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld, as well as by
Eliot Abrams, Jeb Bush, Bush's special envoy to
Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, and many others.
William Kristol, famed conservative writer for the Weekly Standard, is
also a co-founder of the group. The Weekly Standard is
owned by Ruppert Murdoch, who also owns
international media giant Fox News
The desire for these freshly empowered PNAC men to extend
American hegemony by force of arms across the globe has been
there since day one of the Bush administration, and is in no
small part a central reason for the Florida electoral battle
in 2000. Note that while many have said that Gore and Bush
are ideologically identical, Mr. Gore had no ties whatsoever
to the fellows at PNAC. George W. Bush had to win that election
by any means necessary, and PNAC signatory Jeb Bush was in the perfect
position to ensure the rise to prominence of his fellow imperialists.
Desire for such action, however, is by no means translatable
into workable policy. Americans enjoy their comforts, but don't
cotton to the idea of being some sort of Neo-Rome.
On September 11th, the fellows from PNAC saw a door of opportunity
open wide before them, and stormed right through it.
Bush released on September 20th 2001 the "National Security Strategy
of the United States of America." It is an ideological match to PNAC's
"Rebuilding America's Defenses" report issued a year earlier. In many
places, it uses exactly the same language to describe America's new
place in the world. Recall that PNAC demanded an increase in
defense spending to at least 3.8% of GDP. Bush's proposed budget for
next year asks for $379 billion in defense spending,
almost exactly 3.8% of GDP.
In August of 2002, Defense Policy Board chairman and PNAC member
Richard Perle heard a policy briefing from a think tank
associated with the Rand Corporation. According to the Washington Post
and The Nation, the final slide of this presentation described
"Iraq as the tactical pivot, Saudi Arabia as the strategic pivot,
and Egypt as the prize" in a war that would purportedly be about
ridding the world of Saddam Hussein's weapons. Bush has deployed massive
forces into the Mideast region, while simultaneously
engaging American forces in the Philippines and
playing nuclear chicken with North Korea. Somewhere in all this lurks at
least one of the "major theater wars" desired by the
September 2000 PNAC report.
Iraq is but the beginning, a pretense for a wider
conflict. Donald Kagan, a central member of PNAC, sees America
establishing permanent military bases in Iraq after the war.
This is purportedly a measure to defend the peace in
the Middle East, and to make sure the oil flows. The nations in that
region, however, will see this for what it is: a jump-off
point for American forces to invade any nation in
that region they choose to. The American people, anxiously awaiting some
sort of exit plan after America defeats Iraq, will see
too late that no exit is planned.
All of the horses are traveling together at speed
here. The defense contractors who sup on American tax revenue will be
handsomely paid for arming this new American
empire. The corporations that own the news media
will sell this eternal war at a profit, as viewership goes through the
stratosphere when there is combat to be shown. Those
within the administration who believe that the
defense of Israel is contingent upon laying waste to every possible
aggressor in the region will have their dreams fulfilled. The
PNAC men who wish for a global Pax Americana at
gunpoint will see their plans unfold. Through it all, the bankrollers
from the WTO and the IMF will be able to dictate financial
terms to the entire planet. This last aspect of the
plan is pivotal, and is best described in the newly revised version of
Greg Palast's masterpiece, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy."
There will be adverse side effects. The siege mentality average
Americans are suffering as they smother behind yards
of plastic sheeting and duct tape will increase by orders
of magnitude as our aggressions bring forth new
terrorist attacks against the homeland. These attacks will require the
implementation of the newly drafted Patriot Act II, an
augmentation of the previous Act that has profoundly
sharper teeth. The sun will set on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The American economy will be ravaged by the need
for increased defense spending, and by the aforementioned "constabulary"
duties in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Former allies will turn on us. Germany, France and
the other nations resisting this Iraq war are fully aware of this game
plan. They are not acting out of cowardice or because they
love Saddam Hussein, but because they mean to resist
this rising American empire, lest they face economic and military
serfdom at the hands of George W. Bush. Richard Perle
has already stated that France is no longer an
American ally. As the eagle spreads its wings, our rhetoric and their
resistance will become more agitated and dangerous.
Many people, of course, will die. They will die
from war and from want, from famine and disease. At home, the social
fabric will be torn in ways that make the Reagan
nightmares of crack addiction, homelessness and AIDS
seem tame by comparison.
This is the price to be paid for empire, and the
men of PNAC who now control the fate and future of America are more than
willing to pay it. For them, the benefits far
outweigh the liabilities.
The plan was running smoothly until 15 February.
Millions and millions of ordinary people are making
it very difficult for Bush's international allies to keep to the
script. PNAC may have designs for the control of the
"International Commons" of the internet, but for now it is the staging
ground for a movement that would see empire take a
back seat to a wise peace, human rights, equal
protection under the law, and the preponderance of a justice that will,
if properly applied, do away forever with the anger and
hatred that gives birth to terrorism in the first place.
Tommaso Palladini of Milan perhaps said it best
as he marched with his countrymen in Rome. "You fight terrorism," he
said, "by creating more justice in the world."
The People versus the Powerful is the oldest
story in human history. At no point in history have the Powerful wielded
so much control. At no point in history has the active
and informed involvement of the People, all of them,
been more absolutely required. The tide can be stopped, and the men who
desire empire by the sword can be thwarted. It has
already begun, but it must not cease. These are men
of will, and they do not intend to fail.
-------
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times
bestselling author of two books - "War On
Iraq" (with Scott
Ritter)
available now from Context Books, and "The
Greatest Sedition is
Silence," available in May 2003 from Pluto
Press. He
teaches high school in Boston, MA.