The Bush Doctrine in Embryo

The independent National Security Archive has just published recently declassified documents regarding the birth and evolution of the infamous Defense Planning Guidance (DPG) that was leaked to the New York Times and the Washington Post in early 1992 and that later became the inspiration for the Project for the New American Century in 1997 and eventually codified in the National Security Strategy of the United States of America in September 2002 — the codification of the so-called “Bush Doctrine.” The document, which Sen. Joseph Biden, among others, denounced as a “Pax Americana” at the time, called, among other things, for a global strategy based on U.S. military pre-eminence, pre-emption of rogue states and possible rivals, and coalitions of the willing (which it called “ad hoc assemblies”). The 15 documents featured by the Archive was drafted between June 5, 1991 — just after the first Gulf War — and January 1993 when then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney released an official, if euphemistic, version of the controversial document. Most of the documents, however, are heavily redacted.

Among other things, the document illustrates the important role played by Scooter Libby, as well as Paul Wolfowitz (who is generally given credit or blame for the document) in coordinating the project, an additional piece of evidence that Libby, rather than Wolfowitz or Elliott Abrams, was probably the most important and influential neo-conservative in the current administration. It’s increasingly clear that Libby’s demise in October 2005 marked a heavy blow to neo-conservative hopes of retaining decisive influence in the administration. Unmentioned, however, is the informal role played by Albert Wohlstetter and Richard Perle, among others, in helping to shape the outcome through Abram Shulsky, Wolfowitz, Khalilzad, and Libby.

Not to toot my own horn too loudly, I think I was among the first — if not the first (according to Nexis) — to write about the relationship between the leaked DPG and the strategy pursued by the Bush administration after 9/11 — for IPS in ‘Pax Americana’ All Over Again, December 27, 2001; and for Alternet in Bush’s Foreign Policy Blueprint: A Grand Global Plan, March 26, 2002.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time to study the documents in any detail, but this primary source material will obviously be extremely important for those who wish to piece together the evolution of the Bush Doctrine and the antecedents of the radical trajectory on which U.S. foreign policy embarked after 9/11.

Visit Lobelog.com for the latest news analysis and commentary from Inter Press News Service’s Washington bureau chief Jim Lobe.

Author: Jim Lobe

Visit Lobelog.com for the latest news analysis and commentary from Inter Press News Service's Washington bureau chief Jim Lobe.

7 thoughts on “The Bush Doctrine in Embryo”

  1. I wonder if the Plan goes so far as predict the ensuing national bankruptcy or the justifiable insurgencies that would surely arise. If not, it sounds like somebody’s brother-in-law’s plan to make millions in real estate “flipping” properties.

    1. No where is their ever a $ cost to any of these insane plans of universal domination as they include the U.S, Space Command which is HQ in Colorado. The neocon nut cases are now implementing a soviet fascist type government for the USA, complete with the DHS which was established to quell domestic opposition to a national security state, ala Hitler and Stalin models. The Republican Party’s private, taxpayer funded, armies to man the detention camps and provide security in the streets as Blackwater did in New Orleans which served as a pilot program. Remember, these private armies operate outside the rule of law for which Iraq is the pilot program. They also employ foreign mercenaries which suggests the “Salvador option” is on the table. Death squads, which bring us to John Negroponte who holds a domestic national security position. Where Negroponte goes, death squads follow. Central America, Iraq and now, who knows because he’s definitely low profile.

  2. ‘The document, which Sen. Joseph Biden, among others, denounced as a “Pax Americana” at the time, called, among other things, for a global strategy based on U.S. military pre-eminence, pre-emption of rogue states and possible rivals, and coalitions of the willing (which it called “ad hoc assemblies”).’

    Biden, a supporter of Clinton’s Balkans imperial venture (another case of America being lied into war) can hardly complain about Neocon “Pax Americana.”

    In fact, the American Peace is the guise under which most of our foreign “interventions” on behalf of moneyed interests take place. And peace is the last thing on the minds of the schemers who arrange the invasions.

    The difference between Clinton Neolibs and Bush Neocons is merely a matter of degree, not motive (greed, Zionism, elitism, blind ambition, militarism) or world-view (statist-authoritarian).

    In addition to the GOP, the evolution of the Bush doctrine can be traced back to the Clinton administration and even further, to Democrats like Henry “Scoop” Jackson, who was the first to let what later became known as Neocons inside the imperial tent. Big mistake.

    1. Theo-Fascists and Neo-Fascists, the two seeming poles of the present duopoly.

  3. America has been inspired by 1. anti-Catholicism 2. White Supremacy and 3. Greed more than anything else right fm the beginning..It’s hard to accomplish any lasting good with that kind of pedigree.

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