from my website (admins, I'm including the full report):
http://www.doyouknow.org/features/introtopnac.htmlAn Introduction to The Project for the New American Century
With the recent Iraqi war revelations made by Paul O'Neill in the Ron Suskind book "The Price of Loyalty", we think this is an incredibly opportune moment to introduce you to an influential foreign policy group called The Project for the New American Century (PNAC). You may or may not already know about this organization and its intimate involvement with the current administration. If this group is new to you, reading about it may make you feel like you "took the red pill" and took a dive down the rabbit hole.
After all, talk of controlling cyberspace as an offensive measure, deployment of permanent forces in the Middle East, the control of outer space and even the creation of genotype-specific biological weapons for use as a "politically useful tool" could make your head spin more radically than a White House press release.
But we think this trip is necessary.
In March of 1992, during the last year of the first Bush presidency, a draft of a confidential internal Pentagon policy paper was leaked to the press and reported on in a New York Times article. The memorandum was a "Defense Planning Guide" for then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (currently Vice President), and was to be the map for America's foreign policy and strategy. <1>
The report was written with the substantial input of Cheny, Undersecretary of Policy Paul Wolfowitz (currently deputy Secretary of Defense), and Lewis "Scooter" Libby (currently Vice-presidential Chief of Staff), and reflected the public statements of Colin Powell, serving then as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (currently Secretary of State).
Excerpts of six key objectives covered in the document:
• "Our first objective is to prevent the reemergence of a new rival..."
• "The U.S. must show the leadership necessary to establish and protect a new order that holds the promise of convincing potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role..."
• "...The sense that the world order is ultimately backed by the U.S. will be an important stabilizing factor."
• "...By assuming responsibility for righting every wrong, we will retain the preeminent responsibility for addressing selectively those wrongs which threaten not only our interests, but those of our allies or friends..."
• "In the Middle East and Southwest Asia, our overall objective is to remain the predominant outside power in the region and preserve U.S. and Western access to the region's oil."
When first covered by the press, many aspects of the report proved to be so controversial that members of the White House staff under President George H. Bush were forced to disavow it in the media. <2>
A final report, the "Defense Policy Guidelines", was released months later and had significantly toned down the draft's emphasis on the United States maintaining the status of sole world power and engaging in unilateralism. <3>
In the spring of 1997, a nonprofit, educational organization was founded by neoconservative columnist William Kristol and writer Robert Kagan. It was called The Project for the New American Century and proposed using "issue briefs, research papers, advocacy journalism, conferences, and seminars" to push for an American foreign policy that would "shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests". Their Statement of Principles called upon citizens and the government to "embrace the cause of American leadership" and suggested <4>:
• "We need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future..."
• "...we need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values..."
• "...we need to promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad..."
• "...we need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles."
This Statement of Principles was signed by (among others):
Dick Cheney
Donald Rumsfeld (current Secretary of Defense)
Paul Wolfowitz (current Deputy Secretary of Defense)
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (current Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney)
Elliott Abrams (current National Security Council: Senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs)
William J. Bennett (current presidential advisor)
Eliot A. Cohen (current member of the Defense Policy Board)
Aaron Friedberg (current Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Cheney)
Francis Fukuyama (current member of the President's Council on Bioethics)
Zalmay Khalilzad (current Ambassador to Afghanistan)
Peter W. Rodman (current Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs)
Henry S. Rowen (current member of the Defense Policy Board)
Jeb Bush (George W. Bush's brother and current governor of Florida)
Vin Weber (current Midwest campaign chairman for George W. Bush)
In a January 26, 1998, letter <5> to President William J. Clinton on the situation in Iraq, The Project for the New American Century advised him that:
"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... We believe the U.S. has the authority under existing UN resolutions to take the necessary steps, including military steps, to protect our vital interests in the Gulf. In any case, American policy cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council."
This letter was signed by (among others):
Donald Rumsfeld
Paul Wolfowitz
Elliott Abrams
William J. Bennett
John Bolton (now Undersecretary of State)
Richard Perle (now a member of the Defense Policy Board)
Francis Fukuyama
Zalmay Khalilzad
Peter W. Rodman
Vin Weber
In September of 2000, just months before George W. Bush was elected to the Presidency, The Project for the New American Century released a report entitled "Rebuilding America's Defences: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New American Century". <6> The organization's key findings concluded that for the armed forces to carry out core missions in the new century, the United States would be required, among other things, to:
• "Control the new 'international commons' of space and 'cyberspace', and pave the way for the creation of a new military service -- U.S. Space Forces -- with a mission of space control."
• "Develop and deploy global missile defenses to defend the American homeland and American allies, and to provide a secure basis for U.S. power projection around the world."
• "Reposition U.S. forces to respond to 21st century strategic realities by shifting permanently-based forces to Southeastern Europe and Southeast Asia."
Additionally, the report:
• States that the military's primary role today is no longer a defensive one but "is to secure and expand the 'zones of democratic peace' ".
• Calls for a permanent and substantial military force in the Middle East, as well as "forward-based units" across the globe to create what they call an "American security perimeter".
• Singles out Syria, Iran, Iraq and North Korea (members of the "Axis of Evil") as potential future adversaries.
• Foresees a time when "advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes" may "transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool".
• Sees control over "cyberspace" as "an offensive capability" that "could offer America's military and political leaders an invaluable tool in disabling as adversary in a decisive manner".
• Makes the case that the needed transformation of the military forces would be a long one, "absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor".
Paul Wolfowitz, the current Deputy Secretary of Defense, participated in the creation of that report.
In looking at the stated goals of The Project for the New American Century, and the many high-ranking positions held by its members in the current Bush Administration, it is it not at all far-fetched to come to the conclusion that this organization has had an unprecedented chance to shape American foreign policy.
Indeed, many of PNAC's recommendations have already been enacted by the Administration, including the pulling out of the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty with Russia -- which has paved the way for the creation of a missile defense system <7>, the repealing of the decade-old ban on the development of low-yield nuclear weapons -- which opened the door for the research and creation of a small, "bunker-buster" nuclear device <8>, and the labeling of Syria as a member of the "Axis of Evil", with sanctions being enacted against them <9> and plans being made for a possible military intervention <10>. President Bush's recent plan to return humans to the moon has also been seen as part of a scheme to control the vast supply of power-generating Helium-3 that can be found there. <11> Even the use of the word "homeland" to describe the United States originated in PNAC's documents.
Considering their level of influence within the Administration, it is vitally important that Americans fully understand the reach and intent of The Project for the New American Century, and the ways in which they would have us achieve the creation of a "Pax Americana".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Links:
The Project for the New American Century:
http://www.newamericancentury.orgExtensive biographies of The Project for the New American Century members:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/index.php--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References:
<1> & <3> Pentagon Drops Goal of Blocking New Superpowers; The New York
Times, May 23, 1992
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/Wolfowitz92memo.htm<2> Senior U.S. Officials Assail Lone-Superpower Policy; The New York Times,
March 11, 1992
http://www.unansweredquestions.org/timeline/1990s/nyt031192.html <4> Statement of Principles; The Project for the New American Century, June
3, 1997
http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm <5> Letter to President Clinton on Iraq; The Project for the New American
Century, January 26, 1998
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm <6> Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New
Century; A Report of the Project for the New American Century, September 2000
http://www.newamericancentury.org/publicationsreports.htm <7> U.S. Quits ABM Treaty; CNN, December 14, 2001
http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/12/13/rec.bush.abm/ <8> Bush Pushes For Next Generation Of Nukes; USA Today, July 6, 2003
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-07-06-nuclear-usat_x.htm <9> Bush Signs Syria Sanctions Bill; CNN, December 13, 2003
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/12/12/bush.syria/ <10> Bush Aides Debate Attacking Syria; Knight Ridder News Service, January,
10, 2004
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/7678820.htm <11> U.S. Eyes Space As Possible Battleground; Reuters, January 18, 2004
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/01/19/space.weapons.reut/ Copyright 2004
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