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THE fifth estate: ACT OF FAITH
The U.S. Road to War > Printer Version
Broadcast
April 10th, 2003
THE U.S. ROAD TO WAR
The 1991 Victory
The Kuwaiti invasion in 1990 ultimately led to a humiliating defeat for
Saddam Hussein as the Americans and their coalition partners drove him
out of the country. He had never been more vulnerable. But when the war
was over, the Americans just packed up and went home.
Even as Washington was celebrating the victory, there were hawks in the
American defense policy establishment who wanted to pick up were Desert
Storm had left off.
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A New Doctrine for American Dominance
Paul Wolfowitz drafted a secret strategy that was a blueprint for American
domination of the world in the future. The U.S was the most powerful military
and economic force in human history and they wanted to use that power
to advance American interests.
It proposed using pre-emptive force against
anyone perceived to be a threat even if it meant going it alone in defiance
of friends and allies.
Although the strategy was secret, details leaked out. Dame Pauline Neville
Jones was a senior civil servant in the British Foreign Office at the
time.
"It sent a shiver down my back. I just said to myself, no country, however powerful, can operate on the world in this way by itself and hope to have friends and ultimately succeed."
The Waiting Game
The Wolfowitz policy was rejected by the first president Bush in the early
nineties. He decided that America would remain a team player in its foreign
relations - for the moment.
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wing hawks looking to advance their agenda. During the Clinton administration, foreign relations policy was ad hoc and - in their view - spineless. Clinton's CIA director, James Woolsey remembers that attention to foreign intelligence was limited.
"In 1995, when that little airplane crashed into the south lawn of the White House, the White House staff joke was that must be Woolsey still trying to get an appointment."
Read more excerpts from an interview with James Woolsey and read his bio
The Neo-Conservative Think Tank
Paul Wolfowitz and some like-minded neo conservatives
set up their own think tank call the Project for a New American Century.
They called for a muscular new foreign policy, an invincible military
and the guts to use it. (visit
the web site)
In January 26, 1998 they sent a letter to Bill Clinton which argued for a policy of pre-emptive action. Their first target was Saddam Hussein. It was signed by a who's who of radical conservatives like Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, James Woolsey and Richard Perle. (read the letter)
"We really thought in a way we were filling a vacuum because the loyal opposition, the Republican party, was asleep at the helm. They simply weren’t engaging on foreign policy issues. They weren’t raising the kinds of questions that we thought were important to raise." remembers Richard Perle.
Their appeal was ignored.
The Tide Turns
Three years later the tide started to turn. Foreign policy wasn't high
on the agenda of the new Bush administration either. But this time ten
of the hawks from the Project for a New American Century held key positions.
Dick Cheney was made vice-president, Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of
defense and Paul Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld's deputy.
Read "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century,"
September 2000. A Report of the Project for the New American Century.
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The hawks already had a manifesto. (see above)
In it they stated that the process of transforming America's foreign policy
would be a long one unless there was a catastrophic event like Pearl Habour.
The attack on the World Trade Centre shocked the world and changed the
American government forever. Two days after September 11, the foreign
policy makers approached President Bush. On September 30, President Bush
finally embraced the Project for a New American Century with a single
sentence that was to have earthshaking significance for the future.
"Any nation that continues to harbour or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.”
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"What this president was saying is that we are going to take this war to the terrorists where they live, where they work, where they plan, where they conspire, where they organize and to the governments that give them the help on which they rely."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was in the gallery. It was the start of a historical political relationship.
CBC: the fifth estate - Act of Faith
A British Statesman
- The U.S. Road to War - An
Extraordinary Coalition
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