Reply #82: Joshua Micah Marshall on Clark and PNAC - 10/02/03

[Stephanie]

From Joshua Micah Marshall's Talking Points Memo, discussing conservative reaction to remarks made by Wesley Clark in an interview Marshall did with him:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/oct0301.html#100203302pm

Clinton administration: broad minded, visionary, lots of engagement. Did a lot of work. Had difficulty with two houses in congress that didn't control. And in an odd replay of the Carter administration, found itself chained to the Iraqi policy -- promoted by the Project for a New American Century -- much the same way that in the Carter administration some of the same people formed the Committee on the Present Danger which cut out from the Carter administration the ability to move forward on SALT II. - from an interview with Wesley Clark

Josh Marshall:

<snip>The point is that the CPD and PNAC advocacy were both cases in which outside pressure groups --- groups of neoconservatives --- basically B-teamed the given administration, getting around their flank by working congress and the media to force the administration's hand or make certain policy options politically unviable.

With Iraq policy this involved getting the Clinton administration off its policy of "dual containment" and toward one which, on paper at least, embraced the principle of "regime change" as American policy. This in fact was what happened with the passage of the Iraq Liberation Act in late 1998. The embryonic PNAC and other prominent neoconservatives worked the press, lobbied in congress, coordinated with the INC, and the then-weapons inspectors to push for a harder line against Iraq. And in significant ways they succeeded. This isn't a secret or a slur. It's something the neocons see, with some good reason, as a feather in their cap.

The Clinton administration never truly embraced the hawkish position. But what the Iraq hawks were focused on was setting down benchmarks, the principle of "regime change" as official policy, official monetary support from Chalabi's INC, widely signed public letters advocating a more hawkish policy, and so forth.

This all got underway in mid-1996 and followed through more or less through the end of the administration. Much of the big stuff took place during 1998, in part because there was a quite conscious effort (one of the architects walked me through it a year or so ago) to use Clinton's weakness during the Monica scandal to advance the ball, so to speak. Once it was clear that Gore was Clinton's chosen successor the lobbying/mau-mauing shifted to him, with the vice president's advisor Leon Fuerth tapped to tend to their care and feeding.

The details of all this are too complicated to go into at the moment. But Clark's point isn't "crackpot" or "bizarre." He's got it exactly right. The analogy to the late Carter administration is quite apt. And Kristol, Schhuenemann and Stoll each know it. Indeed, they were each in their own way part of it.<more>