Posted on 12/30/2003 4:49:32 PM PST by blam
Hawks tell Bush how to win war on terror
By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 31/12/2003)
President George W Bush was sent a public manifesto yesterday by Washington's hawks, demanding regime change in Syria and Iran and a Cuba-style military blockade of North Korea backed by planning for a pre-emptive strike on its nuclear sites.
The manifesto, presented as a "manual for victory" in the war on terror, also calls for Saudi Arabia and France to be treated not as allies but as rivals and possibly enemies.
The manifesto is contained in a new book by Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser and "intellectual guru" of the hardline neo-conservative movement, and David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter. They give warning of a faltering of the "will to win" in Washington.
In the battle for the president's ear, the manifesto represents an attempt by hawks to break out of the post-Iraq doldrums and strike back at what they see as a campaign of hostile leaking by their foes in such centres of caution as the State Department or in the military top brass.
Their publication, An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror, coincided with the latest broadside from the hawks' enemy number one, Colin Powell, the secretary of state.
Though on leave recovering from a prostate cancer operation, Mr Powell summoned reporters to his bedside to hail "encouraging" signs of a "new attitude" in Iran and call for the United States to keep open the prospect of dialogue with the Teheran authorities.
Such talk is anathema to hawks like Mr Perle and Mr Frum who urge Washington to shun the mullahs and work for their overthrow in concert with Iranian dissidents.
It may be assumed that their instincts at least are shared by hawks inside the government, whose twin power bases are the Pentagon's civilian leadership and the office of the vice-president, Dick Cheney.
Such officials prevailed over invading Afghanistan and Iraq, but have been seen as on the back foot since the autumn as their post-war visions of building a secular, free-market Iraq were scaled back in favour of compromise and a swift handover of power next June.
The book demands that any talks with North Korea require the complete and immediate abandonment of its nuclear programme.
As North Korea will probably refuse such terms, the book urges a Cuba-style military blockade and overt preparations for war, including the rapid pullback of US forces from the inter-Korean border so that they move out of range of North Korean artillery.
Such steps, with luck, will prompt China to oust its nominal ally, Kim Jong-il, and install a saner regime in North Korea, the authors write.
The authoritarian rule of Syria's leader, Bashar Assad, should also be ended, encouraged by shutting oil supplies from Iraq, seizing arms he buys from Iran, and raids into Syria to hunt terrorists.
The authors urge Mr Bush to "tell the truth about Saudi Arabia". Wealthy Saudis, some of them royal princes, fund al-Qa'eda, they write.
The Saudi government backs "terror-tainted Islamic organisations" as part of a larger campaign to "spread its extremist version of Islam throughout the Muslim world and into Europe and North America".
The book calls for tough action against France and its dreams of offsetting US power. "We should force European governments to choose between Paris and Washington," it states. Britain's independence from Europe should be preserved, perhaps with open access for British arms to American defence markets.
Don't you love that? These disgusting Chicken Hawk cowards want to remove our troops from the DMZ and out of the most heavily concentrated long range artillery in the world and yet Seoul could be pulverized in a matter of 10 minutes by the North since that city is that close to the border. Does our province- oops- ally- South Korea get a say in this? The neocons- the will fight for world wide "democracy" to every last drop of blood that isn't theirs!
France is not a reliable ally, and cannot be trusted. My wife has been dying to go to Paris, but we will not go until France decides whose side it's on.
There's no harm in letting Syria and Iran know that they're next, if they don't sever their ties to terrorism.
Scaring the hell out of tyrants seems to work well, so far.
I highly doubt that.
Absolutely, they better already have plans for preemptive strikes on NK nuke sites.
France has an economy what? 20 percent of ours? And that is charitable. France was acting in her interests or what she percieves them to be. She fancies herself as the "lead nation" of the Euro union. Having America neck deep in oil country is not good for her. France is the perfect example of the Mercanilist nation state. She is socialist at home and very liberal but in order to sustaion this lifestyle she has intervened abroad and mostly in former French, Spanish, and Portugeese colonies so that they have de facto colonial rule.
We are doing the same I fear in Iraq. Exclusive contracts? That is what the French did and do in Africa. We are just now becoming blatant about it. But whereas the French are so cynical that they mostly know what their government does- We have to shroud our "interests" in "humanitarian" terms or in the language of comic book villians.
And what would Hussein "folding" entailed? Giving up his Wmds? Surrendering himself? Would he be in power if he "folded" if the French and the rest joined us?
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