Iraq

Below I talk about the charge that the war in Iraq was dreamed up in Texas as a political product. This is pure fantasy. Clearly as the containment of Iraq dragged on there would be three positions on what to do next: 1) abandon the containment and leave Iraq, 2) continue the containment indefinitely and pursue UN solutions, and 3) the time for continued containment is over, we should overthrow Saddam. See the Summer 1996 article in foreign Affairs by Kristol and Kagan. They later put it together into a book, for 2000. We know that Perle and Wolfowitz had been advocating greater action in Iraq for similar reasons throughout the 90's. Clearly this was a policy position based on a political philosophy now well known under the label of Neo-Conservatism. To charge that the war was conducted for oil, that it was conducted for Halliburton, or that it was conducted as a "political product" ignores this history of this policy advocacy. You can debate the policy as a good one or a bad one, but to pretend that the cause for war is something other than what Perle, Kagan, Wolfowitz, or Kristol had been arguing for some time requires the presentation of some other policy at least as compelling as that argued by Perle and Wolfowitz, who are in the administration, and Kagan and Kristol who are prolific writers on policy in the circles which generates ideas for many Republicans.