Letters from our Readers - December 2006

Famous Last Words 
One of the original members of the neo-conservative Project for a New American Century who pushed for U.S. pre-emptive strikes and hegemony in the Middle East, Richard Perle, was among the two dozen “fellows” from the American Enterprise Institute who pervaded the Bush Defense Department. In November 2002, President Bush commended AEI as having "some of the finest minds in our nation." Obviously in the throes of euphoria, Perle wrote the following soon after the fall of Baghdad:

“This was a war worth fighting. It ended quickly with few civilian casualties and with little damage to Iraq's cities, towns or infrastructure. It ended without the Arab world rising up against us, as the war's critics feared, without the quagmire they predicted, without the heavy losses in house-to-house fighting they warned us to expect”. ….“Iraqis are freer today and we are safer. Relax and enjoy it.” (May 2, 2003)

Out of a sampling of 35 AEI fellows, 15 are signers of Project for a New American Century papers. 11 are on boards or otherwise connected to corporations. 12 are or were imbedded in the Bush Administration. 13 are connected in some way to Israel. And only 3 have served in the US armed forces.

Other fellows in this collusive cluster of “fine minds” are: John Bolton, Eliot A. Cohen and Dick Cheney. Some non-AEI collaborators in Project for a New American Century are: Jeb Bush, Elliot Abrams, Gary Bauer, William Bennett, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Dan Quayle, Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld.

These elite intellectuals worked in high-paying positions of trust and influence in our government. Yet their arrogant agenda spilled more American blood, did more harm to our standing in the world and cost more $billions than a million terrorists. They should all answer for their apostasy if not downright sedition.

Bill Barnes 
Conroe, TX 

FROM: http://www.thebulletin.com/letters.htm