November 9, 2001	Friday	Shaba’an 22, 1422

WASHINGTON: A determined band of self-styled Cold War ”intellectuals”, heedless of US allies and officials, continues to push President George W. Bush to extend his “war” against terrorism at least until he deposes Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. At the centre of this effort is the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), a network that includes key members of Bush’s national security team and their associates in government and the media.

In the wake of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the US, the group has intensified its public and behind-the-scenes efforts to bring about Saddam’s removal. In an open letter to Bush that has become their current mission statement, 38 PNAC associates urged Saddam’s ouster “even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the (Sept 11) attack”. Lebanon, Syria, Iran and the Palestinian Authority should be punished, they added, if these do not take immediate steps to shut down “terrorists”, such as Hezbollah and Hamas, opposed to Israel.

Washington’s closest European allies strongly oppose the idea of going after Saddam in the absence of credible evidence tying the Iraqi leader to the Sept 11 attacks. Loyal Arab allies - including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan - have warned that an attack on Baghdad would make their continued support politically impossible and would risk setting the entire region aflame.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, backed by heavy-hitters from Bush’s father’s administration, has argued that even talking about widening the “war” would be counter-productive at a time when Washington is desperately trying to rally faltering Arab support for its efforts in Afghanistan. Powell’s cohorts include former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and Secretary of State James Baker.

Within the administration, the most visible advocate of attacking Iraq is Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Ten years ago, as defence undersecretary, he clashed with Powell over whether to send US forces all the way to Baghdad after evicting Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

Behind Wolfowitz lies a network of veteran Washington hands whose political savvy, talent for polemics and bureaucratic intrigue, media and intelligence contacts, and lust for ideological combat have made them a formidable influence on foreign policy for almost 30 years.

Their core is made up of “” - former Democrats, often passionately committed to Israel, who broke with the party over the Vietnam War and moved steadily to the right. They recruited prominent New Republicans, like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, as fellow travellers.

The best-known members of the network include former UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, “End of History” guru Francis Fukuyama, former CIA chief James Woolsey, and syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer. The more influential in the policy realm include administration insiders like Wolfowitz; Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby; Iran-Contra veteran Elliott Abrams, now Bush’s top aide for global issues, democracy, and human rights; Douglas Feith, the defence undersecretary for policy; and Richard Perle, who currently heads the Defence Policy Board.

William Kristol, former Vice President Dan Quayle’s chief of staff and currently editor of Rupert Murdoch’s Weekly Standard, is perhaps the group’s most public agitator.

In the neo-conservatives’ view, the United States is a force for good in the world; it has a moral responsibility to exert that force; its military power should be dominant; it should be engaged globally but never be constrained by multilateral commitments from taking unilateral action in pursuit of its interests and values; and it should have a strategic alliance with Israel. Saddam must go, they argue, because he is a threat to Israel, and also Saudi Arabia, and because he has hoarded - and used - weapons of mass destruction.

Ardent supporters of US military intervention, few neo-cons have served in the armed forces; fewer still have ever been elected to public office. Numerous polls show that large majorities of the public repudiate their main principles - especially their ceaseless quest for global military dominance and contempt for the United Nations and multilateralism more generally.

The 25 signers of its statement of principles include Cheney, Rumsfeld, Libby, Wolfowitz, Abrams, several others in the Pentagon and National Security Council, and Bush’s brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush. —Dawn/InterPress Service.