Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (148040)	10/15/2004 5:56:52 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Not really addressed to you, and not beligerent: Wolfowitz, a "hawkish" conservative military analyst under Ronald Reagan, had in the 1990s, during the Clinton presidency formulated a new foreign policy with regard to Iraq and other "potential aggressor states", dismissing "containment" in favor of "preemption"; strike first to eliminate threats. Clinton, along with Bush Senior, Colin L. Powell, and other former Bush administration officials, dismissed calls for "preemption" in favor of continued "containment." This was the policy of George Walker Bush as well for his first several months in office. Many saw Wolfowitz'z plan as a "blueprint for US hegemony" and his "preemption" policy remained contained until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 revived hawkish advocacy for defending by attacking. Again, I have to thank you for highlighting this. If you read what Wolfowitz has written, and what others close to him have written (just peruse the internet for some time - check articles put out by Rand Corp and linked hawkish neocons; follow the bibliographies for more...) - the idea trail on Wolfowitz is very clear. Its no surprise then, that many people share a concern which goes like this: - Bush Jr., in over his head on all matters of foreign policy, is elected. - Bush Jr. prior to being elected knew very little about the big wide world around him. Neocon and I know way more about the world than Mr. Bush did, prior to election day, prior to 9/11. We can turn up exhaustive references that underscore this. - Bush Jr. is surrounded by the most hawkish set of advisors in modern history - but not merely hawkish in a defensive sense, these people - almost all men - are hawkish in an offensive sense. - 9/11 occurs. Unskilled, untested, and unknowledgable, one can forgive George Jr. for feeling a sense of panic. Maybe he won't remember it that way, but "what do I do next" had to be on his mind, big time. It was on all our minds that fateful morning. - Bush Jr. has no alternative, I repeat, no alternative but to lean heavily on the defense and security executive he has surrounded himself with. He may have come to office as a domestic-focussed president, but he has the people around him and they have a plan which is decidedly different than anything that the US administration of past years - republican or democrat - would have followed. Its not a stretch to believe that Bush is now defending choices made because he had no choice back then but to utterly rely on others. Its also not a stretch to believe that those who drafted this new doctorine would go out of their way to see it implemented, including justifying war on thin pretext. Academics that cross the doorstep to implementation frequently lose their objectivity. Frankly, anyone invested heavily in a theorem is going to be very tempted to ignore what they may consider "outlier" information that doesn't support their thesis, or goals. Implementing Wolfowitz's thesis was his life's goal, and shared by other key members of this administration. Neocon, its well established that you don't believe this "support the agenda / doctorine at all costs" is at all credible. Ironically that level of singlemindedness just goes to prove such things are possible.