Since the war is over I figure it's time to turn my contempt on others in the administration. This guy tops the list. http://slate.msn.com/id/2082676/
the major neoconservative figures that promoted this war yrs b4 9/11 are as follows: Paul Wolfowitz: grand marshall Richard Pearle: Propaganda minister Dick Cheney: the inside man Don Rumsfeld: The Muscle Paul Wolfowitz: the ex CIA legitimate arm William Krystol: reaganite hold over those are he major conspirators that convinced President Rove, err I mean Bush to strike iraq. Wolofwitz wanted to attack iraq more so than afghanistan on 9/12 because it was "doable"
Re: Re: Richard Perle President Rove Liberals have never figured out how to deal with the "dumb" Republican Presidents (Ike, Reagan, Bush II). Probably because they're far more clever than most Democrats.
Not the Duyba is dumb, he did convert a C avg, a 1200 SAT & the legacy exemption to get into Yale. But Karl Rove devised the Bush win strategy ie. focus on war and massive tax cut and diverting attention away from domestic policy, unemployment, corp fraud, healthcare, etc. If the cynical right-wingers did their homework, they'd know this guy was instrumental in dubya's beating a VERY popular Ann Richards by limiting his weaknesses (public statements) and focusing on a simple, repetative message. Then he created a perception of success and helped the hill coat tail the midterm, 3 branch take-over. Karl Rove is his most trusted advisor and what he tells dubya has a far greater chance of becoming policy than what his secretaries give him. Read Boy Genius and take off your blinders. But this thread is dedicated to the civilian neoconservative influence in the Pentagon determining foreign policy strategy and how they gained favor after 9/11, not the political strategist that runs the country.
Carter, a 1-term governor, was a nuclear submarine officer and Clinton, politically invisible prior to '92, was a Rhodes Scholar.
It was Bush's discipline that won the election. It's not like Clayton Williams wasn't given similar advice after uttering some of his idioitic comments. I'm not discounting Rove's importance, but I'm sick of people underestimating Bush. It's a recipe for failure.
Re: Re: Richard Perle I've been folowing politics closely for as long as I can remember. Gore, Tsongus(sp?) & Gephardt were the big names back then. I've since learned better than to underestimate the craftiness of the dubya team. I think i actually met Rove once in a local Foley's Dept store when he told me he was going to be the next president. This was the 1st yr of his gubernatorial term and I thought the concept was silly, esp since the Texas Governor has less authority than even the Lt. Governor. He can't even appoint a cabinet. Plus,the Rangers still sucked and continue to do so
Re: Re: Richard Perle Before he ran for president, Clinton was known. But for only one thing - delivering a long and boring as hell speech at the Democratic convention.
Re: Re: Re: Richard Perle I'm not one for watching those, since they're all show and substance, chicken choking contest. So I missed that speech entirely, but heard about a few yrs ago. When he said, "in conclusion" the audience applauded.
Back to the thread topic: Richard Perle Bill Krystol and another civilian influence in the pentagon Bob Keagan, a neocon, post-cold war columnist, are heads of a group called the Project for a New American Century, which advocates, “to promote democracy in the Arab world as an antidote to radical Islam,” and establishing a Paxamericana to project American influence in the Gulf, are calling for the admin not to punish ‘Old Europe’ and warn against promoting convicted embezzler Ahmed Chalabi for fear of losing credibility. It’s not been a coincidence that Rummy is sounding less cavalier about that lately. Bill Krystol was speaking the language of imperialism yesterday on "This Week." He emphasized the importance of remaking Iraq by force if necessary, and deploying that force against Iran if necessary. This seems to be a popular viewpoint, as if the history of Western interference in the Arab world demonstrates the success of using military force to achieve strategic or commercial goals neocons attack cybertron One of the real lessons of Wester...nia) thereby being in contrast to American .