G W Bush’s successful Presidency

William Pitt reminds us to keep the following in mind during this election:

It has been more than ten years now since PNAC first introduced itself by way of its letter to Clinton. Over this decade, PNAC’s ideology and foreign policy mandates became the center of gravity for America’s military and diplomatic practices and priorities. Those same PNAC members listed above were instrumental in the formulation of false arguments for an attack and invasion of Iraq, and for the execution of same.
To many, the current situation in Iraq represents a prime example of the folly and failures of George W. Bush and his administration. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. From the PNAC perspective, their presence within US government and control over US policy has been a great success. They achieved the massive increase in military spending they sought in 2000, much of which became and continues to be a multi-billion dollar payout to friends and political allies. They have their permanent bases in Iraq. And if the tea leaves are being read correctly, they might just get an attack on Iran, which represents one more step towards their goal of region-wide regime change in the Middle East.

Ten years on, the Project is doing quite nicely, thank you. Failure is only in the eye of the beholder, and if the beholder is getting everything he wants with a tidy payday to boot, “failure” is not what they are going to see. As far as PNAC is concerned, this has been a decade filled with astonishing achievements. In other words, it’s all about priorities and perspective…

PNAC alumni.
Among these were:

Bush’s current vice president, Dick Cheney;

Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby;

Bush’s former defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld;

Bush’s former deputy defense secretary, Paul Wolfowitz;

Bush’s former special assistant and senior national security adviser, Elliot Abrams;

Bush’s former ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad;

Bush’s former deputy secretary of state, Richard Armitage;

Bush’s former UN ambassador, John Bolton;

Bush’s former assistant defense secretary and member of the Defense Policy Board, Richard Perle;

Bush’s former deputy secretary of state, Robert Zoellick; and,

Bush’s former defense policy adviser, Eliot Cohen.