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Danny |
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Richard N Perle resigned this week as the Chairman of the influential Defense Advisory Board which theoretically advises Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on various defense and security matters. If anyone is the architect of our “Let’s Get Saddam” policy, it is he. Great to see him elbowed out or at least from the top post- -he’s still there- -but why now? Would you believe seeming conflict of interest for his role as a paid consultant to bankrupt Global Crossing, a telecom company with all the ethics and morals of Enron, just not as well known? But this was not news to anyone in the Washington inner circle. Perle has been a known fixture for years. He was ready to rewrite the history of the Middle East when he had no forum from which to do this. Once Rummy came to power, he was a shoe-in for the Defense Advisory-Policy-Advisory Board, or whatever it’s really called. Conflict of any kind is their specialty, especially conflict of interest. In fact, nine members of the Defense Policy Board have ties to companies that have won more than $72 Billion-with-a-“B” in defense contracts in the past two years, according to The Center For Public Integrity as reported by Bloomberg’s Laura Smitherman recently. And not only have these nine guys been shilling for Boeing, TRW, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and others, they have been telling Rummy how they think George Bush’s War ought to go. By the way, the Advisory Board’s members to a man all protest that there is no wrongdoing. But how can you divide your loyalties in this manner? You either are advising the best you know how for the good of the country, or you are drumming up business for the defense contractors who are paying you fat consulting fees to sell more war crap to the Government. “Needleman, we need to sell more planes, rockets, bombs and whatever else we make, is that clear? Or else we’re all going to have to take a drastic cut in our fat salaries and stave off the shareholders’ complaints. Do you understand?” “But, sir, we have already sold everything we make to the Gub’ment and they don’t need any more.” “Well then, gall-darn-it, we’re going to need a war so they’ll use up all the stuff they already have, and then they’ll have to buy more of the war crap we make. Tell Rumsfeld we need a war, or we’ll all go out of business, and you’ll be out of a job, Needleman.” It seems the generals who are actually trying to run George’s Folly have opinions differing from their Secretary of Defense on how this impending fiasco should proceed. Some of them say they are already running low on necessary stuff like Tomahawk cruise missiles and such. (By the way, does anyone ever call them Tom Cruise Missiles? Just curious.) And they are having a rough time getting essential supplies such as fuel and water. Some predictions now say it will be summer before there is any decision in all this. Iraq is throwing up far more resistance than this panel of experts first predicted, and US forces have yet to engage the Iraqi elite units of the Republican guard. (By the way, have you noticed that in Ireland, they have the Irish REPUBLICAN Army, and in Iraq, Saddam’s forces are called the REPUBLICAN guard. And to what party does Dubya Bush belong? Right. What is it with these REPUBLICANS, anyway?) Okay- -let’s review, as this stuff is not making the front page many places because of the actual “War of Liberation” in Iraq, or whatever they’re calling it this week. A guy with a bad comb-over- -and doesn’t that make sense!- -Richard Perle- -who went to school to learn about the Middle East, and then became an under-assistant-west-coast-promo-man for his own concept of how the Middle East should be administered in some future fantasy administration, gets his actual chance to run things by influencing the Secretary of Defense under George Dubya Bush. Now, after years of scheming, plotting and planning we are in an actual war with Iraq in order to bring his vision to fruition. He’s been accused of duplicity in a Sy Hersch New Yorker article, and we should not be surprised. Perle says he’s going to sue- -but weeks have gone by and the only thing that has happened is that he has been eased out of the Chairmanship and soon, hopefully, possibly under investigation by the Justice Department and the FBI, off the whole committee that directed us to get involved in this foolish war in the first place. He’s gone but the war is not. Kids are dying because this guy thought he knew what would be best for Iraq, the US and the world. A guy who can’t even fix his own hair is going to fix the world as he sees it. Scary. Richard Perle, please just go away. Or in other words, Perle, Baby, won’t you please go home.
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