Reality Check: A New American Century

Robin Rowland, CBC News Online | March 17, 2003



As the U.S. edges closer to war with Iraq, some are wondering whether the conflict could have been avoided. As the CBC Reality Check team found, the current course of events has been carefully planned by a powerful group of men, beginning even before George Bush assumed the U.S. presidency.

George W. Bush, presidential candidate, said on Oct. 11, 2000.

"I think one way for us to end up being viewed as the ugly American is for us to go around the world saying, 'We do it this way, so should you.'"

One of Bush's more recent speeches is somewhat different: "The world has a clear interest in the spread of democratic values, because stable and free nations do not breed the ideologies of murder... By the resolve and purpose of America, and of our friends and allies, we will make this an age of progress and liberty."

So, what happened? After the terrorist attacks on September 11, Bush had to rethink. But for many of those around him, there was no need to. Long before Sept. 11, influential neo-conservatives wanted to see America as an enlightened ruler, unchallenged, astride the world. Long before Bush was elected president, they got together and they wrote down a manifesto.

The document was effectively a charter of the Project for a New American Century, a neo-conservative think tank in Washington.

Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says, "In essence it's a call for an American empire, for what they call Pax Americana ... it's basically saying that the United States has to take responsibility and to enforce peace around the world and enforce what they call American principles and American interests."

The founding members included Vice-President Dick Cheney; Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; Paul Wolfowitz of the Defence Department; Richard Perle, head of the defence advisory board; Louis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff; John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control; and Elliot Cohen of the defence policy board.

Much of what these men wanted is coming true: They urged that the U.S. abandon the anti-ballistic missile treaty. It has.

They wanted establishment of more permanent U.S. military bases abroad. That is happening in the Philippines and in Georgia, and will likely happen in Iraq.

They urged regime change as a goal of foreign wars, and not just in Iraq.

They wanted the U.S. as a global "constabulary" – their word – unburdened by the United Nations or world opinion, preventing any challenge to U.S. dominance.

****But, they wrote a year before Sept. 11, such aspirations are unlikely to be realized without "A CATASTROPHIC AND CATALYZING EVENT....LIKE A NEW PEARL HARBOUR."****

William Kristol, a leading neo-conservative and director of the Project for a New American Century, believes such goals are good and right, and he's delighted with all this success, but says there is more to do.

"We haven't persuaded the Bush administration of everything… I think we need to spend more on defence, I think they need to re-think their policy toward Saudi Arabia, I think the administration kicked the can down the road on North Korea, but that remains a threat…"

It's America as Gary Cooper in High Noon, say the critics. Standing tall, all alone, building a new American empire in a new American century.

"Kristol has used the term 'benevolent global hegemony,' which to me says empire, but I suppose if you put the word benevolent in front of it, it makes it OK," Bookman says.

It's been a long time in the making. And wise people will not underestimate the determination of its proponents.

"The point of view from here is a really attractive agenda of governing. We never thought of ourselves as simply intellectual thought experiments," Kristol says.



http://www.cbc.ca/news/iraq/issues_analysis/realitycheck030317.html