The Third Saturday Seminar
Subject for the Sixth Session
19 February 2005, 9:30 am-12:00 noon
Room B-102, Montgomery College

Questions?  Call Curt Gibby, 281-353-4350, gcgconsult (at) n-star.com
You can download an interactive version of this study guide at: http://www.northstarinst.org/TSS/#Menu

 

“Quo Vadis?”
Where are you (we, America) going ?
Hegemony or Horror or is there an Alternative …


Is it really about Liberty, Democracy and Freedom? (Yes, but …)
(Did Columbus really want to bring Christianity to the inhabitants of the New World?)  (Yes, But …)

Other countries could face US military action, Up to 50 states are on blacklist, says Cheney
Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor, Guardian, Saturday November 17, 2001

Mr Cheney, in a rare public foray, said in an interview for the BBC’s Pashtu service yesterday morning: “There are a great many places round the world where there are cells of the al-Qaida organization. Maybe as many as 40 or 50.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4301152,00.html

Terror war must target 60 nations, says Bush
June 03, 2002, World News
From James Doran in Washington
THE United States must be prepared to take the War on Terror to up to 60 countries if weapons of mass destruction are to be kept out of terrorists’ hands, President Bush said at the weekend.

His impassioned speech to 1,000 graduates of West Point Military Academy in New York State on Saturday marks a watershed in the Administration’s foreign policy.

Mr Bush said that terrorism cells in countries that make up close to one third of the globe must be actively sought and dismantled. “We must take that battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans and confront the worst threats before they emerge,” he said, adding that Americans must be “ready for pre-emptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives”.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-315250,00.html 

 

Cheney puts Iran at top of trouble list
Thursday, January 20, 2005 · Last updated 8:50 p.m. PT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

  photo
  Vice President Dick Cheney addresses the crowd at the Texas/Wyoming Ball at the Washington Convention Center Thursday, Jan. 20, 2005, in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney, in an interview hours before he and President Bush were sworn in for a second term, said Iran now tops the list of the world’s potential trouble spots.
Iran is pursuing “a fairly robust new nuclear program” and “is a noted sponsor of terror,” he said in an interview Thursday with syndicated radio host Don Imus.“You look around the world at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list,” the vice president said.
Another concern, Cheney said, is the possibility of Israel making an initial military move if it became convinced Iran had significant nuclear capability.

THE PENTAGON’S NEW MAP  BY
THOMAS P.M. BARNETT, U.S. NAVAL WAR COLLEGE , Esquire, March 2003
http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/published/pentagonsnewmap.htm

And it is becoming more clearly apparent that the following article applies …  When you “believe” you are right and are in power, you have no  reason to hide your intentions … In fact it helps eliminate confusion …

From: REBUILDING AMERICA’S DEFENSES
Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century
A Report of The Project for the New American Century
September 2000 (http://www.newamericancentury.org)
http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf

ESTABLISH FOUR CORE MISSIONS for U.S. military forces:

• defend the American homeland;
• fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars;
• perform the “constabulary” duties associated with shaping the security environment in
critical regions;
• transform U.S. forces to exploit the “revolution in military affairs;”*

*Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA)
… This two-stage process is likely to take several decades. Yet, although the precise shape and direction of the transformation of U.S. armed forces remains a matter for rigorous experimentation and analysis (and will be discussed in more detail below in the section on the armed services), it is possible to foresee the general characteristics of the current revolution in military affairs.
Broadly speaking, these cover several principal areas of capabilities:

• Improved situational awareness and sharing of information,
• Range and endurance of platforms and weapons,
• Precision and miniaturization,
• Speed and stealth,
• Automation and simulation.

From page  59 of  Rebuilding Americas Defenses

Founded in 1997, These people put their names on the founding principles of the PNAC:

Elliott Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush
Dick Cheney, Eliot A. Cohen, Midge Decter, Paula Dobriansky, Steve Forbes
Aaron Friedberg, Francis Fukuyama, Frank Gaffney, Fred C. Ikle
Donald Kagan,  Zalmay Khalilzad, I. Lewis Libby, Norman Podhoretz
Dan Quayle, Peter W. Rodman, Stephen P. Rosen, Henry S. Rowen
Donald Rumsfeld, Vin Weber, George Weigel, Paul Wolfowitz


The Nuclear Policy Research Institute, provides this additional detail:
From “The Political, Intellectual, and Strategic Roots of the Current United States Defense Policy:
The Project for the New American Century” , NPRI (http://www.nuclearpolicy.org)
http://www.nuclearpolicy.org/Documents/RootsofUSDefensePolicy.pdf
Who is the PNAC (Project for a New American Century)?

Richard Cheney: Vice President of the United States

Previous Service:  Secretary of Defense under President George H.W. Bush
(1989–1993), U.S. Representative from Wyoming (1978–1989), White House
Chief of Staff under President Ford (1975–1976).


Private sector jobs: CEO of Halliburton (1995–2000).

Richard Armitage: Deputy Secretary of State

Previous Service: Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security
Affairs in the Reagan administration (1981–1989).


Donald Rumsfeld: Secretary of Defense

Previous Service:  Special presidential envoy to the Middle East (1983–1984) in  the interests of constructing a pipeline through the region, Coordinator of White House Staff in the Ford administration, Secretary of Defense under President  Gerald Ford in 1975, U.S. Representative from Illinois (1962–1969).  He also helped Richard Cheney secure a position as Chief of Staff in the Ford  administration as Coordinator of the White House Staff.

Private sector jobs: CEO of General Instrument Corporation (1990–1993), former
CEO of GD Searle and Company (1977–1985).


Paul Wolfowitz: Deputy Secretary of Defense

Previous Service: Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (1989–1993) and worked  with then–Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in reshaping U.S. defense strategy after the Cold War as well as strategic planning of the Gulf War


Richard Perle: Former Chairman of the Defense Policy Board

Resigned due to a conflict of interest in 2003.  The Defense Policy Board serves the public interest, by providing the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary for Policy with independent, informed advice and opinion  concerning major matters of defense policy.


Previous Service: Served as Foreign Policy Advisor to President George W. Bush  during his first campaign; Assistant Secretary of Defense for International  Security Policy during both Reagan terms (1981–1987).

Previous Service: Served as foreign policy Advisor to President George W. Bush  during his first campaign; Assistant Secretary of Defense for International  Security Policy during both Reagan terms (1981–1987).

Private sector jobs:   Former CEO for Hollinger International Inc. starting in  1993, which owns more than 400 newspaper publications worldwide. At the same time that he was serving on the Defense Policy Board, Richard Perle was also a  managing partner at Trireme Partners L.P., a company that invests in firms dealing in technology, goods, and services that are of value to homeland security
and defense.


Stephen Cambone: Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, a position that was
created by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Previous Service:  Director of Strategic Defense Policy under President George H. W. Bush (1990–1993), worked closely with Rumsfeld in 1998 to assess the ballistic missile threat to the United States.


The PNAC Board and the Defense Industry: Businessmen Barry Watts, Abram Shulsky,  and James Lasswell, who were affiliated with Northrop Grumman: the RAND  Corporation, and the GAMA Corporation, respectively; board members of the PNAC.

Source: The Political, Intellectual, and Strategic Roots of the Current United States Defense Policy:
The Project for the New American Century  July 2004

Perspective in context: An echo from History (Daniel Webster on the War of 1812)
http://members.tripod.com/~war1812/intro.html

It soon became clear that great numbers of Americans were not at all united in approving the conflict with Great Britain. Many felt that it was a contest fought for purposes other than those which had been declared by the War Hawks. These feeling were put into eloquent words by the famous American orator and statesman, Daniel Webster, when he spoke in Congress:

Whoever would discover the causes which have produced the present state of things, must look for them, not in the efforts of the opposition, but in the nature of the war in which we are engaged … Quite too small a portion of public opinion was in favor of war to justify it originally. A much smaller portion is in favor of the mode in which it has been conducted … Public opinion, strong and united, is not with you in your Canada project … The acquisition of the country is not an object generally desired by the people … You are you say, at war for maritime rights, and free trade. But they see you lock up your commerce and abandon the ocean. They see you invade an interior province of the enemy. They see you involve yourselves in a bloody war with native savages; and they ask you if you have, in truth, a maritime controversy with the Western Indians, and are really contending for sailors’ rights with the tribes of the Prophet.

Remember why Japan really Attacked us in WWII?
Why (Energy) Twilight Is Near (According to Matt Simmons of Simmons Company International)

• All Middle East producers have small number of
giant fields making up large part of supply.
• Many have already seen serious decline.
• All will soon experience aging process.
• Post-1960s exploration has been bleak.
• Best experts (without rose colored glasses) think
OPEC supply additions might grow by 3 to 4 million
barrels per day by 2010.

http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/files/IEA-NYMEX.pdf

War Clouds

http://www.eisenhower.utexas.edu/farewell.htm

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.  Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

I remember these famous words from Dwight Eisenhower’s  farewell radio address in 1961.  And, I have tended to attribute our  tendency to periodically engage in conflicts to the military-industrial coalition’s building up our defense stature to the point, that like a mythical sword it demands the taste of blood.  And, I still think that is an enabling factor, but I now think the motivation to be far more complex,  having to do more with the needs to satisfy or defend against the special interests of competing, societies, cultures  or countries for real estate and resources necessary to enable them to produce more profits or apocalyptic goals.  Towards this end, they develop effective strong influence on the institutions of governance in order for their desires to be satisfied in an effective and timely manner.

“I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed,” bin Laden said as the U.S. war on terrorism raged in Afghanistan. “The U.S. government will lead the American people in — and the West in general — into an unbearable hell and a choking life.”  Osama Bin Laden
Al Jazeera taped video interview October 12, 2001
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/01/31/gen.binladen.interview/