Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying

Claim to fame:

• Founder of the Middle East Forum
• Former board member of the US Institute of Peace (recess appointment by President Bush)
• Muslim basher and all around xenophobe
• Japanese internment supporter
• Palestinian hater
• Iraq War champion

•  "Mohammed Atta, one of the hijackers, met with an Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague. Two of his co-conspirators met with Iraqi intelligence officers in the United Arab Emirates. Bin Laden aides met with officials in Baghdad. Further, Saddam may be behind the recent military-grade anthrax attacks, suggested by the presence of bentonite, a substance only Iraq uses for this purpose.
  " -"On to Baghdad?: Yes - The Risks Are Overrated" in the  New York Post, 12/3/2001
• "Saddam Hussein represents the single greatest danger to the United States, not to speak of the rest of the world. Today, with Americans mobilized, is exactly the right moment to dispatch him." - New York Post, 13/3/2001
• "A famous American victory in Iraq and the successful rehabilitation of that country will bring liberals out of the woodwork and generally move the region toward democracy. (Saudi leaders are already leaking their plans to establish electing assemblies, something totally unprecedented in their kingdom.)" -New York Post, 2/11/2003
• "The United States cannot pass up a unique chance to remake the world’s most politically fevered region. Sure, the effort might fail, but not even to try would be a missed opportunity." - New York Post, 2/11/2003
• "Oh, it was a success. We got rid of Saddam Hussein. Beyond that is icing." -Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 4/1/2006
• "The ingratitude of the Iraqis for the extraordinary favor we gave them — to release them from the bondage of Saddam Hussein’s tyranny. They have rapidly interpreted it as something they did and that we were incidental to it. They’ve more or less written us out of the picture. " -Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 4/1/2006

 Claim to fame:

• Assistant Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan
• Chairman of Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee under President Bush
• "Prince of Darkness"
• Member of the Project for a New American Century
• Signer of 1998 Letter to President Clinton advocating overthrow of Saddam Hussein
• Alleged to have behaved unethically for financial gain
• Iraq War champion

•  "Because the thing that many of us have speculated about is happening. There is that interchange. It is likely that chemical weapons, biological weapons in the possession of the Iraqis derived during the cold war from the Soviet Union are now being disseminated to terrorists." -PBS interview, 7/11/2002
• "Saddam is in the terrorists business. The easiest thing for intelligence organizations to do is unconsciously slip into a world-view that becomes a filter that causes you either not to look, or even when you see, to ignore and fail to register information inconsistent with that world-view. And it has been the view of the intelligence establishment for a long time now that Saddam, who is secular and not a religious fanatic like Osama bin Laden, behaves in a manner different from the terrorists.

  So they’re not looking. Even when there’s evidence; they tend to discount the evidence. I think they’re simply wrong about this." -PBS interview, 7/11/2002

• I noted there were widespread media reports saying an attack would require up to 250,000 troops. These soldiers could not all be air-dropped into Iraq. They would have to come from somewhere, such as Saudi Arabia. And a military action of this size would need extensive logistical support nearby.

  Forget the 250,000 figure, Perle said: "The Army guys don’t know anything. They said we needed 500,000 troops in 1991 [for the Gulf War]. Did we need that many to win? No."

  What’s the Perle Plan? I asked.

  "Forty thousand troops." he said. - David Corn interview, 5//10/2002

• "The problems in Iraq are ahead of us, but we’re doing better than people think. And a year from now, I’ll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush. There is no doubt that, with the exception of a very small number of people close to a vicious regime, the people of Iraq have been liberated and they understand that they’ve been liberated. And it is getting easier every day for Iraqis to express that sense of liberation."  -AEI Luncheon 9/23/2003

 Claim to fame:

• Assistant to Donald Rumsfeld from 1975 to 1977
• Arms Control Director under Ronald Reagan
• Member of the Project for a New American Century
• Ken "cakewalk" Adelman 
• Iraq War champion

•  "I believe demolishing Hussein’s military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk. Let me give simple, responsible reasons: (1) It was a cakewalk last time; (2) they’ve become much weaker; (3) we’ve become much stronger; and (4) now we’re playing for keeps. " - Washington  Post, 2/13/2002
• "Hussein constitutes the number one threat against American security and civilization. Unlike Osama bin Laden, he has billions of dollars in government funds, scores of government research labs working feverishly on weapons of mass destruction — and just as deep a hatred of America and civilized free societies. " - Washington Post, 2/13/2002
• "We urge you to seize that opportunity, and to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world.  That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power.  We stand ready to offer our full support in this difficult but necessary endeavor." -PNAC letter to President Clinton, 1/26/1998
• "I have no doubt we’re going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction". These weapons are likeliest to be found near Tikrit and Baghdad, "because they’re the most protected places with the best troops." - Washington Post, 3/23/2003

 Claim to fame:

• US Ambassador to Iraq
• Former US Ambassador to Afghanistan
• King maker of Iraq and Afghanistan
• Member of the Project for a New American Century
• Signer of 1998 Letter to President Clinton advocating overthrow of Saddam Hussein
• Initially supported the Taliban in Afghanistan as a force for stability
• Negotiated with the Taliban on behalf of Unocol to for a proposed natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan
• Iraq War champion

•  "The Taliban do not practice the anti-U.S. style of fundamentalism practiced by Iran" -1996 while working for Unocol on the Afghan gas pipeline proposal

 Claim to fame:

• President of Center for Security Policy
• Assistant Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan
• Member of the Project for a New American Century
• Signer of 1998 Letter to President Clinton advocating overthrow of Saddam Hussein
• Frank "Connect the Dots" Gaffney
• Iraq War champion

•  "Under present wartime circumstances, though, the United States has the ability — and, indeed, an urgent responsibility — to take more comprehensive action against Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. Unless the two networks adjust their behavior so as no longer to act as the propaganda arm of our enemies, they should be taken off the air, one way or another." - Fox News, 9/29/2003
• "The [9/11 Commission] staff’s statement concerning Iraq and Al Qaeda (search) is internally inconsistent; it ignores key facts; it selectively addresses others; and it effectively condemns as incredible the considerable amount of evidence that suggests Saddam Hussein and Usama bin Laden did indeed have a collaborative relationship – as President Bush and Vice President Cheney have insisted." -Fox News, 6/20/2004
• "I was thinking actually about effecting regime change through the use of military force. There are other ways to effect regime change as well. The problem with not replicating the Iraqi (Israeli?) Osirak attack, which also had a desired effect on Iraq, is it is no longer possible, given the lessons the Iranians learned about concealing and dispersing their nuclear weapons program. I think to do that very discriminate, precise military strike, you’re gonna have to change the regime, and I think the good news here, John, if there is any, is that I believe the Iranian people want that every bit as much as we do, if not more."-John Gibson interview, 11/24/2004, already advocating attacking Iran in 2004
• "The connections between the Nazis and the Islamofascists are rooted in more than shared ambitions of world domination and violent methods."…"Consequently, as a practical matter, we have no choice but to fight the Islamofascists, both abroad and at home. Surrender, whether in Iraq or elsewhere, is not an option." -Renew America 3/20/2006

 Claim to fame:

• Deputy National Security Advisor to President Bush
• Special Assistant to the President under President Bush
• Pled guilty to two counts of unlawfully withholding information from Congress during Iran-Contra
• Member of the Project for a New American Century
• Signer of 1998 Letter to President Clinton advocating overthrow of Saddam Hussein
• Iraq War champion