Dot Connections

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. The following excerpts from an article by Mr. Pitt dated February 25, 2003 are worth reading for its additional background illumination of the history of PNAC and its role in the War on Terror:

The Project for the New American Century, or PNAC, is a Washington-based
think tank created in 1997. 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. 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 outlineswhat is required of America to
create the global empire they envision. According to PNAC, America
must:
* Reposition permanently based forces to Southern Europe, Southeast Asiaand
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.

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 openwide 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 indefense
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 gameplan. 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.