the truth as to the real causes of America’s woes --- Fundamental to the PNAC were the view that "American leadership is both good for America and good for the world" and support for "a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity." The PNAC exerted influence on high-level U.S. government officials in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and affected the Bush Administration's development of military and foreign policies, especially involving national security and the Iraq War. PNAC's January 16, 1998 letter to President Clinton, which urged him to embrace a plan for "the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power," and the large number of members of PNAC appointed to the Bush administration as evidence that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was a foregone conclusion.
Signatories: Paul Wolfowitz Deputy Secretary of Defense (2001-2005) I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States (2001-2005) under Dick Cheney Richard Perle Chairman of the Board, Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee (2001-2003) Eliot A. Cohen Member of the Defense Policy Advisory Board (2007-2009) Randy Scheunemann Member of the U.S. Committee on NATO, Project on Transitional Democracies, International Republican Institute Dov S. Zakheim Department of Defense Comptroller (2001-2004) Elliott Abrams Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights, and International Operations (2001–2002), Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs (2002–2005), Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy (2005-2009) (all within the National Security Council) Richard Armitage Deputy Secretary of State (2001-2005) John R. Bolton Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs (2001-2005), U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (2005-2006) Dick Cheney Vice President (2001-2009) Seth Cropsey Director of the International Broadcasting Bureau (12/2002-12/2004) Paula Dobriansky Under-Secretary of State for Global Affairs (2001-2007) Francis Fukuyama Member of the The President's Council on Bioethics (2001-2005) Zalmay Khalilzad U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan (11/2003 - 6/2005), U.S. Ambassador to Iraq (6/2005 - 3/2007) U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (2007-2009) Peter W. Rodman Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security (2001-2007) Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense (2001-2006) Robert B. Zoellick Office of the United States Trade Representative (2001-2005), Deputy Secretary of State (2005-2006), 11th President of the World Bank (2007-Present) On Mar 10, 9:49 am, "M. Johnson" <[email protected]> wrote: > Blame It on Freedomby Jacob G. Hornberger > One of the distinguishing characteristics of statists is their inability to > take responsibility for their failures. The fault always lies elsewhere. Two > of the best examples of this phenomenon are the welfare state and the warfare > state. > For more than a century after the founding of the Republic, Americans had > lived with little or no income taxation, economic regulation, paper money, > legal-tender laws, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SBA loans, corporate > grants, education grants, drug laws, and other forms of paternalism. Early > Americans believed that freedom involved the rights to engage in economic > enterprise freely, accumulate unlimited amounts of wealth, and decide what to > do with their own money e.g., invest, save, spend, or donate. > All that changed in the 20th century, thanks to the statists. In 1913, the > income tax and the Federal Reserve were established, heralding a way of life > in which government would wield omnipotent power to take or destroy people’s > income and wealth. > Major change came again in the 1930s, when President Franklin Roosevelt built > the foundation for the modern-day welfare state, a type of socialism that had > originated among the socialists of Germany. > Since then, the welfare state the paternalistic state the nanny state the > socialist state whatever label you wish to put on it has grown by leaps and > bounds. > To fund all this socialism, well, that’s where those two mechanisms that were > formed in 1913 come into play income taxation and the Federal Reserve. > Today, the welfare state is cracking apart. Everywhere you look, things are > in crisis. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, FDIC, the dollar, the > national debt, and federal spending. It’s all broke or breaking. Just like it > has in Greece, whose the welfare state has finally reached the breaking point. > But what do the statists say? Oh, it’s all because of freedom and free > enterprise. You know, such guilty culprits as greed, speculation, banking, > deregulation, and profit. Not surprisingly, their solution to all these > welfare-state woes is … you guessed it more statism. > It’s no different with the warfare state. After the fall of the Berlin Wall > and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the statists went into panic mode > over fear of suffering massive reductions in welfare for the military and the > military industrial complex. Desperately in search of a mission that would > permit them to maintain their hold on their Cold War largess, they embarked > on course of action designed to poke hornets’ nests in the Middle East, with > deadly and destructive consequences. > There was the Persian Gulf intervention against their old partner and ally > Saddam Hussein; the intentional destruction of Iraq’s water and sewage > facilities after the Pentagon confirmed that this would help spread > infectious illnesses among the Iraqi people; the brutal sanctions that > contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children; U.S. > Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright’s infamous declaration that the > deaths of half-a-million Iraqi children were “worth it”; the illegal no-fly > zones over Iraq, which killed more Iraqis; the stationing of U.S. troops on > Islamic holy lands, knowing how insulting this would be to Muslims; and, of > course, the years of unconditional financial and military support given to > the Israeli government. > Then came the inevitable “blowback” the retaliation: the 1993 attack on the > World Trade Center, the attack on the USS Cole, the attacks on the U.S. > Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and 9/11. > What was the response of the statists? It’s all because of freedom! You see, > according to the statists, the anger and hatred that had boiled over in the > Middle East after a decade of brutal U.S. intervention, was all because > Muslims hate America for its freedom, not because people were angry over all > that death and destruction that came with intentionally poking those hornets’ > nests. > Today, both the welfare state and the warfare are in deep crisis, and things > are only getting worse by the month. Count on the statists to become angrier, > more frustrated, and more fearful that people might discover the truth as to > the real causes of America’s woes. Count on the statists to continue blaming > freedom for America’s woes, both foreign and domestic. It’s the only hope > statists have that Americans will continue following them down the road to > serfdom and impoverishment.http://ow.ly/16LyAF -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
