(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Bush's hawks are known to have a bad relationship with Iraq and other "rogue states", the UN and international treaties. But they have a good relationship with nuclear weapons. After the Probation Agreement was rejected by the Senate in October 1999, the two renowned peace researchers Harald Muller and William Walker wrote an article in the British newspaper The Independent. There, they suggested that dark forces were at play in the United States, and that a policy of reconciliation with the arch-conservative American right could be dangerous for all of us. Whether it came from the Clinton administration or from foreign governments.
The prince of darkness
Dark forces give association to Richard Perle, also called "the prince of darkness" in the Reagan period. Perle recently resigned as chair of the Defense Policy Board, a key advisory body to the Bush administration, but remains a board member. Perle was one of the signatories of the Declaration of Principles of the group "Project for a New American Century" (PNAC), which was established in 1997. Other signatories were Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. All four knew each other from the 1970s, when Perle worked for the Conservative Democratic Senator Henry Jackson, and the other three held positions in Gerald Ford's administration.
The PNAC presented a report in 2000. Among the authors were Stephen Cambone (now senior in the Pentagon), I. Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff) and Paul Wolfowitz. PNAC argues that the United States must maintain its nuclear superiority, that a nuclear deterrent must take into account a global assessment of current and potential future threats. Furthermore, the United States must consider the growing number of smaller nuclear arsenals, from North Korea to Pakistan. As well as an expanded and modernized Chinese arsenal. The report is concerned with the use of nuclear weapons against biological and chemical weapons, as well as the development of new and more effective nuclear weapons. These thoughts were included in the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), published in January 2002, in the September National Strategy Paper last September, and in the December last document, which deals with the fight against weapons of mass destruction. It is alleged that the PNAC report is based on the basic elements of a strategy paper prepared by Wolfowitz and Libby in 1992, when both held positions in the Pentagon under Dick Cheney. But the document was then downplayed by then-security adviser Scowcroft and Secretary of State Baker.
Peace through strength
Libby and Wolfowitz had speed from Reagan's time, and were among the few hawks who joined the Bush administration. The others disappeared into the industry or into various conservative think tanks. Richard Perle joined the American Enterprise Institute, and Donald Rumsfeld became chairman of the Committee for the Free World, a gathering place for conservative hawks. Cheney had been chief of staff in the White House for the last year of Gerald Ford's time, and then went into politics until he became Secretary of Defense under Bush Sr. Afterwards, Cheney joined the conservative think tanks American Enterprise Institute and Center for Security Policy (CSP). The CSP and the National Institute for Public Policy (NIPP) were two very central, albeit smaller, think tanks in which conservative hawks sought refuge in the 1990s. The more famous ones were the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.
These smaller think tanks had their forerunners in the 1970s. Henry Jackson was a Conservative Democrat who wanted a strong defense and "peace through strength." In 1972, he formed a group called the Coalition for Democratic Majority (CDM). Richard Perle worked in Jackson's staff. He had been recommended to Jackson by Albert Wohlstetter, the leading theorist on nuclear strategy and a very conservative and anti-Soviet person. Pearl worked for Jackson until he joined Reagan's administration. Paul Wolfowitz was also one of Wohlstetter's protesters.
Opened for Reagan
Henry Jackson supported the formation of another conservative group, the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), in 1976. The CPD paved the way for the election of Reagan in 1980 by exaggerating the danger from the Soviet Union and by taking the lead in preventing ratification of SALT II. -Agreement. It was also believed that the United States did not keep up on the armaments front. Paul Nitze was instrumental in the formation of the CPD. (Nitze completely changed a few years ago, and now recommends that the United States get rid of all its nuclear weapons). The CPD, for its part, was behind the formation of the so-called "Team B", on the recommendation of the aforementioned Albert Wohlstetter. He claimed that the CIA systematically underestimated the Soviet deployment of missiles with nuclear weapons. Paul Nitze was also a key member of Team B. Paul Wolfowitz was an adviser, and Donald Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defense, supported the study. He thus helped to undermine armaments control under Carter, and laid the foundation for the explosion in the defense budget under Reagan. Dick Cheney was chief of staff at the White House, and together the two are said to have formed a dominant advisory axis, which partially marginalized Secretary of State Kissinger, which they found too moderate.
Donald Rumsfeld was "present" in Washington during the Reagan era. In addition to being a special envoy to the Middle East, he was also an advisor at the Office of Armament Control and Disarmament. Paul Wolfowitz had a brief stay in Reagan's first administration, then became ambassador to Indonesia. Richard Perle was Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1981 to 1987. Another of today's key figures in the Pentagon, Douglas J. Feith, worked in Reagan's administration from 1981 to 1986. He was, among other things, special adviser to Richard Perle.
- Is at the finish line
The two smaller think tanks mentioned above, CSP and NIPP, gained influence in the 1990s. Douglas Feith, now No. 1998 in the Pentagon, has been chairman of the board of CSP. With him in the organization he had several people who now hold high positions in the Bush administration. JD Crouch, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, James Roche, Minister of the Air Force, and Richard Perle. Crouch is a known opponent of the Probation Agreement. The CEO of CSP was Frank Gaffney, who has also held a position in administration. Donald Rumsfeld has had a long-standing affiliation with CSP, and in XNUMX he was awarded the organization's award, Keeper of the Flame.
Gaffney is a disciple of Pearl, with whom he worked under Reagan. Gaffney left his post in 1987 because he opposed the agreement on the elimination of medium-range missiles in Europe and also on the START agreements. CSP played a significant role in the progress of the missile defense. There are also good contacts with conservative Republican politicians. Among them is Jon Kyl, who led the fight against ratification of the Probation Agreement. Another is Curt Weldon, who was behind the appointment of the first Rumsfeld commission. It was considered by many to be a new Team B commission, because it was to review the CIA's reports of missile threats from "robbery states". Another CSP member and politician was behind the other Rumsfeld commission, which studied the need for a space defense. The CSP now boasts that as many as 22 members of staff or council work in the Bush administration. During a gala dinner in December 2001, Frank Gaffney stated that "it has taken us 13 years, but now we are at the finish line".
Loud minority
The Hawks have also succeeded in placing one of their own in the State Department, against Colin Powell's wish. John Bolton, a staunch opponent of armor control agreements, heads the office responsible for just that. Bolton has also been involved with the American Enterprise Institute, and he is an outspoken opponent of the Trial Prosecution Agreement.
In January 2001, the NIPP published a report that must have had a major impact on the Bush administration's nuclear weapons policy. Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) several of its specific recommendations. Three of the key people behind the report went into important positions at Bush. Stephen Cambone is mentioned. Stephen Hadley is the deputy leader of the National Security Council. There is also a third person, Robert Joseph. In addition, the CEO of NIPP, Keith Payne, has been given a position in the administration.
In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle in February of this year, the United States Disarmament Ambassador from 1998 to 2001, Robert Gray Jr., expressed concern about his country's single move. This is because, he wrote, a small, radical and loud minority. The blueprints of this policy can be found in documents prepared well before the last presidential election, Gray writes. He specifically refers to the report from Project for a New American Century.
