part 4- america's turn for imperialism?

recap:
intro- globalization
part 1- what is it and why should we care?
part 2- the brave new americas?
part 3- meet the players

i have been having a hard time with this post because there are so many directions i can go in- so i just picked one. i want to look at the new policy of pre-emption and apparent imperialism that america has recently engaged in. i want to try and follow the money trail and the power trail. this journey is a long one- so there may be multiple posts in this direction.

it seems that think tanks have sprung up like mushrooms in washington and i am beginning to think that there are as many 'think tanks' as there are lobbyists. it also seems that every former congressman that leaves office- even the ones who left with a scandal cloud over them- decide to stay in washington as lobbyists or think tank consultants. republicans have them- democrats have them- it is an equal opportunity idea. my journey is leading me to the following players and the following groups and i think that many will be familiar to most:

rumsfeld
cheney
wolfowitz
gingrich
delay

NATO
project for new american century- PNAC
american enterprise institute
new citizenship project
world bank
international monetary fund
s.w.i.f.t.
halliburton

begin at the beginning- the rumsfeld, cheney, wolfowitz trinity met each other under the nixon administration- rumsfeld was director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, cheney was hired by rumsfeld and becomes Rumsfeld's low-key personal assistant, and wolfowitz was a Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago, and spent the summer working with another student, Richard Perle. in 1972, rumsfeld was in limbo at the white house, and cheney had moved on to serve as assistant director of the Cost of Living Council. wolfowitz finished his ph.d and goes to work for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. rumsfeld's and kissenger's frustration in the nixon administration spawns a new school of thought- neoconservatism--the critique by the conservatives is that somehow the modern era has lost sight of moral judgments. So there's a whole school of conservative philosophy that centers around dictatorships vs. democracy or moral judgments, good vs. evil. rumsfeld becomes ambassador to nato.

they continued working together under ford- and indeed shaped the ford administration. rumsfeld presides over the Ford transition and then becomes White House chief of staff. From his new position of power, he begins to challenge Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, especially on arms control. cheney becomes an assistant in the White House again after Rumsfeld calls him. wolfowitz is still working as an analyst in the Pentagon's Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, where he will stay for the entirety of the Ford Administration. in 1975, rumsfeld becomes the youngest secretary of defense in U.S. history and cheney takes over as White House chief of staff.

after ford left office, rumsfeld went into private business, cheney ran and won a house seat, along with his friend, newt gingrich. wolfowitz remains at the department of defense. under reagan, rumsfeld acts as a middle east representative and wolfowitz goes to work for secretary of state, george schultz. cheney becomes minority whip of the house in 1988.

thing start cooking during bush 1 administration where cheney is secretary of defense and the cheney/powell rivalry is born. cheney leads an effort to create a military budget that will not cut too much funding -- even though the Cold War is winding down and the Berlin Wall will fall in September -- Cheney points to emerging new threats, specifically WMD. cheney is keen to respond to Iraq with force. Behind Powell's back, he begins work on a plan for U.S. invasion -- "Operation Scorpion" -- and argues that Bush does not need Congressional approval for the war. Bush, however, insists. Cheney also orders Powell to keep his advice strictly limited to military matters. cheney's war plan, which might result in chaos in the region, is rejected. But he presses on, asking for a new civilian-authored war plan and independent assessments of the SCUD missile threat (and further angering Powell in the process). His second plan more closely resembles the one eventually used. wolfowitz, now number three at the Pentagon, orders a review of Persian Gulf policy with an eye toward defending the Saudi oil fields from an invasion by a nearby nation, such as Iraq, which has used chemical weapons on the Kurds at Halabja. wolfowitz helps Cheney develop his plan. But he argues against going in to Baghdad. Later, he explained his opposition at the time, writing that an occupation might be "easy initially," but it was "unclear how or when it would have ended." in 1991, Hussein uses his helicopters to gun down Shiites and Kurds; 100,000 die between March and September. A horrified wolfowitz pleads for U.S. intervention, but can get no support. The incident fuels both neo-conservatism and Wolfowitz's fixation on Hussein. in 1992, wolfowitz writes the Defense Planning Guidance, arguing that the Cold War idea of containment is dead and military preemption of threats, particularly WMD, is the U.S.'s best strategy. The draft is leaked and, amid controversy, Cheney rewrites it, editing out mentions of preemption and unilateralism.

pnac is born in 1997 out of the neoconservative movement. now, i didn't know a thing about pnac until i started digging. what i saw put everything into perspective. the pnac crowd lays out their policy in their document 'rebuilding america's defenses.' PNAC is noteworthy for its focus on Iraq, a preoccupation that began before Bush 2 became president and predates the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

so, my theory is this- the neo-cons have their vision for america that is not all inclusive. they are after power, money and oil- and my thought is- to be the superpower of the world. i believe that these folks are out to make america a dictatorship here and to take over the entire world. that sounds farfetched if you aren't looking at a bigger picture. it is not politics as usual- these folks have placed certain people in certain positions for a reason- and that's why there is little firing and much shuffling. bolton at the un, wolfowitz at the world bank, gingrich at the american enterprise institute, delay- started the k street project with grover norquist in order to make sure that repubs only were put in charge of lobby groups who petitioned congress. rice got shuffled and powell got booted. there is a plan in the works with mexico and canada to form a north american bloc similar to the european union and indeed, a conservative government is now in place in all three countries. the nasco highway system was put together under the radar and is moving forward.

i will continue to post more on this issue but the sheer volume of information is too much for one or even two posts. this is just the tip of the ice berg.