Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence

[Joanne98]

by Dana Milbank

Listening to neoconservative mastermind Richard Perle at the Nixon Center yesterday, there was a sense of falling down the rabbit hole.

In real life, Perle was the ideological architect of the Iraq war and of the Bush doctrine of preemptive attack. But at yesterday's forum of foreign policy intellectuals, he created a fantastic world in which:

1. Perle is not a neoconservative.

2. Neoconservatives do not exist.

3. Even if neoconservatives did exist, they certainly couldn't be blamed for the disasters of the past eight years.

"There is no such thing as a neoconservative foreign policy," Perle informed the gathering, hosted by National Interest magazine. "It is a left critique of what is believed by the commentator to be a right-wing policy."

So what about the 1996 report he co-authored that is widely seen as the cornerstone of neoconservative foreign policy? "My name was on it because I signed up for the study group," Perle explained. "I didn't approve it. I didn't read it."

Mm-hmm. And the two letters to the president, signed by Perle, giving a "moral" basis to Middle East policy and demanding military means to remove Saddam Hussein? "I don't have the letters in front of me," Perle replied.

Right. And the Bush administration National Security Strategy, enshrining the neoconservative themes of preemptive war and using American power to spread freedom? "I don't know whether President Bush ever read any of those statements," Perle maintained. "My guess is he didn't."

continued>>>
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/20-5

[county worker]

1. But remember they kept us safe what ever they call themselves

:sarcasm:

The denial of the last 8 years by the right is really something to behold! Whether it is freepers saying Bush kept us safe or free market devotees wanting more deregulation and lower taxes on the wealthy it's just so predictable. At least they have to acknowledge that it was one big cluster fuck to have to live in denial like they do.

[Seldona]

2. He even admitted the war was illegal!!!

It's like these guys forget the internet exists. Dumb asses.

[Captain Hilts]

3. I read this article this morning. AMAZING the degree of denial. nt

[damntexdem]

4. Ooh, such lack of self esteem!

I guess he just doesn't consider himself a Perle of great price. ;-)

[BlueMTexpat]

5. Yes, but when did Dana Milbank ever talk about this

sense of being in Wonderland several years back? Perle and his nutcase chickenhawk friends haven't changed one iota. And they never will.

I'm glad that some in the MSM seem to be doing some actual reporting these days. But Milbank and others failed us most when it counted most.

Lest we forget ... :rant:

[snot]

6. I SO wish someone wd do a Jon Stewart on this: What He Says NOW vs. What He Said THEN.

[laststeamtrain]

7. K & R.

Perle's deceptions

<snip>

I was struck by Perle's smoothness and dishonesty. So many things were deceptive about his statements. His insistence that Bush had done the thinking on Iraq is deceptive; Perle knows that Bush doesn't know how to think. And if our enemy is really the people who would blow up women and children to achieve their political goals, then our enemy is Sunnis in Iraq (who are now part of the government we're supporting) and lots of other people too. Suicide bombing was used first against the U.S. and France in Lebanon. Then it spread to Israel, and also to Sri Lanka.
But Perle focused only on Israel. This betrayed the neoconservative obsession with Israel; because the neocons are by and large Zionists.

Blaming the neocons for Iraq is a conspiracy theory, Perle said (per the Washington Post). And I accept that: I believe the neocons functioned in a conspiratorial manner. One hallmark of their conspiracy was their failure to be transparent about their real concerns, concerns they nonetheless have revealed in countless ways (such as when they urged war on Iraq in 2002 because Israel is "an island of liberal, democratic principles -- American principles -- in a sea of tyranny, intolerance, and hatred"). Jim Lobe more than anyone has labored to expose that hidden agenda. And that's my clearest impression of the event. Years after the Iraq disaster, and Lobe asks honest questions, and Perle plays an intellectual shell game...http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/02/jim-lobe-damn-near-pins-tough-richard-perle-in-the-latest-round-of-neocon-evasions.html

[elleng]

8. Guess not.

http://www.newamericancentury.org/index.html

[Danascot]

9. History has a well known liberal bias

A corollary to "reality has a well known liberal bias".

When Repugs don't like the way things went down, they just make up an alternative version ... problem solved!

[DCKit]

10. Another victim of the vast left wing conspiracy...

and the liberal M$M.

Teh Poor Republic Fascists. :nopity:

[Solly Mack]

11. Can't spell denial without LIE

[Mr. Sparkle]

12. This recession has hit some people hard, but by the sound of it, i think he is having a meltdown!

[puebloknot]

13. They didn't read or do the homework; they don't even know where it is now ...

... so there's no justification for giving them an "F".

Bizarro World to powers of ten!

[tom_paine]

14. Creepy and crazy, nazi-like and Mafia-like. The audacity of authoritarian monsters continues to

amaze.

And that is why they keep winning, even when they "lose".

Same old story. Those who fell back before the Will of the Caesars and Hitler would understand our predicament.

Our Congressional Democrats would understand the terror of Sejanus, now modified into a kinder and gentler and plausibly deniable form.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sejanus

May God help us for what is inevitably coming, be it sooner or later. Maybe Obama can tuirn it around, but it doesn't even look like he is trying, other than on a cosmetic level.

[olegramps]

15. Couldn't we just deport him to Israel?