Don't Let the PNAC Bastards Revise Pre-War History!

[BurtWorm]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A62681-2003Sep11?language=printer


Wolfowitz Shifts Rationales on Iraq War
With Weapons Unfound, Talk of Threat Gives Way to Rhetoric on Hussein, Democracy

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 12, 2003; Page A23


As the Bush administration's leading hawk on Iraq, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz has been a tireless proponent of the argument that Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction was a compelling enough reason for the United States to resort to war.

These days, his emphasis is different. In testimony to congressional committees and interviews with reporters, Wolfowitz prefers to stress the evil, dictatorial nature of former president Saddam Hussein's defunct government and the opportunity to turn Iraq into a beacon of hope for the rest of the Middle East. He depicts Iraq as the focus of a life-and-death struggle between the forces of democracy and the forces of intolerance.

Wolfowitz is by no means alone. Since the fall of Baghdad five months ago, senior administration officials from President Bush downward have been reinventing the rationale for war. In his television address Sunday night, Bush barely mentioned Hussein's chemical and biological weapons programs. Instead, he described Iraq as "the central front" in the war on terror, the site of a desperate last stand by the "enemies of freedom," who include former Hussein loyalists and foreign terrorists.

<more at site>



Was it Wolfowitz's plan all along to accelerate the process of rewriting history that neo-con journals like TNR and Atlantic Monthly usually take years to effect? Is that what this bait-and-switch war was about? Did they know they couldn't sell the war the way Wolfy is selling it now until after "Mission" was "Accomplished?"

[Newsjock]

1. Note where this is buried

Page A-freakin'-23.

That speaks volumes.

[RobertSeattle]

2. Wolfie was even trying to spin "Mission Accomplished" on MTP

A month or two ago. (Russert didn't call him on it)
Tried to say it was "Mission Accomplished" was "just" referring to mission accomplished in regards to that Aircraft Carrier --- right. He has no shame.

[baby_bear]

4. How could he have shame?

I truly believe the guy is amoral. That makes him very scary in my book.

s_m

[dani]

3. if they want to emphasize

how evil and dictatorial the Saddam Hussein regime was, maybe I'll emphasize how immoral, dishonest, and hypocritical the Republicans were/are for giving that regime the money, support, military intelligence, weapons, etc that the regime needed to perform their evil-ness.

[baby_bear]

5. Don't get your comment about TNR and At. Monthly

neo-con journals with the same objective as Wolfowitz? Please explain...

s_m

[BurtWorm]

11. TNR was a breeding ground for neo-conservatism

Witness the following alumni: Barnes, Kondracke, Krauthammer, Kelly, Sullivan. Kelly went on to turn the Atlantic Monthly into a neo-con propaganda organ.

These magazines, which are highly influential among the ruling classes, repeatedly sell themselves with cover stories that revise history or upend "conventional wisdom." A perfect example from TNR was a cover story in the fall of 2000 praising the presidency of Bush I. That's right, in the fall of 2000, when TNR publisher Marty Peretz's boy Al Gore was struggling against Bush II.

[Flying_Pig]

6. Ve vill sing der tune, .....

you, ... vill dance.
:evilgrin:
<http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,287510,00.jpg>

[Dancing_Dave]

7. That picture is truely worth a thousand words...

Now we'll find out how many people learned the lesson from history, and how many are simply doomed to repeat it.

[einsteins stein]

8. Sometimes it seems as if we struggle from collective, willful amnesia

Because we forget our history as if on purpose, as if historical content is simply too heavy for us to bear.

The general population have become so many Winston Smiths, busily altering history within their own minds, altering facts, erasing individuals, whatever maintains the Bush mandated matrix of blind optimism.

We have seen Big Brother, and he is us.

[newyawker99]

10. Hi einsteins stein!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[DemBones DemBones]

9. Leo Strauss's philosophy is key in understanding these people.

And this article gives a fine introduction:

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15935

Here's a Cliff's Notes sort of summary but please go read the article -- this is really important to understanding these people.


Rule One: Deception


". . . Strauss believed that "those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right – the right of the superior to rule over the inferior."


Second Principle: Power of Religion

Religion is "essential, " according to Strauss, for controlling the masses but of course the leaders don't believe in it. The leaders only want it for controlling the people and because:

<snip>

"Secular society in their view is the worst possible thing,'' Drury says, because it leads to individualism, liberalism, and relativism, precisely those traits that may promote dissent that in turn could dangerously weaken society's ability to cope with external threats."


Third Principle: Aggressive Nationalism

"Like Thomas Hobbes, Strauss believed that the inherently aggressive nature of human beings could only be restrained by a powerful nationalistic state. "Because mankind is intrinsically wicked, he has to be governed," he once wrote. "Such governance can only be established, however, when men are united – and they can only be united against other people."


"Not surprisingly, Strauss' attitude toward foreign policy was distinctly Machiavellian. "Strauss thinks that a political order can be stable only if it is united by an external threat," Drury wrote in her book. "Following Machiavelli, he maintained that if no external threat exists then one has to be manufactured (emphases added)."


Be afraid. Be very afraid.