U.S. State Department Insider Exposes Cheney-Rumsfeld Cabal
According to a former high level state department insider, Lawrence Wilkerson, the Bush administration has put the American people in grave danger by replacing traditional national security policy decision-makers and institutional checks and balances with a secretive and unaccountable cabal. In particular, Wilkerson alleges that the damage done by the Bush administration's cabal and its ill-conceived policies on the treatment of detainees in Iraq and elsewhere will bring shame to the American people when they fully come to terms with what has been done.
Wilkerson, who served for three years as chief of staff to former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell, went public on October 19, 2005 at a New America Foundation forum in Washington, D.C. and blew the whistle on what he calls the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal. He accused the cabal of masterminding the poorly planned and executed U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. By deliberately excluding traditional participants and agencies that have always been an integral part of the national security policy-making process, the cabal devised policies, strategies and tactics that were so unrealistic and ill-suited to actual conditions that they are increasing rather than decreasing violent deaths and terrorist attacks in the country.
Reviving Dwight Eisenhower's warning that the American people must vigilantly safeguard the republic against the intrigues of the "military-industrial complex" and the defense industry that drives it, Wilkerson used the forum to sound the alarm over the dangers U.S. citizens now face as a result of the cabal's weakening of the decision-making capabilities of the federal government and its capacity to protect the national interest. Should a nuclear bomb go off in an American city, or natural catastrophes or pandemics like the looming bird flu hit the U.S. mainland, U.S. citizens cannot count on the government in power to protect them. It is too inept at making decisions that work, as its response to the Katrina disaster has demonstrated. The chaos that is likely to ensue from any one of these calamites will reveal a government no better equipped to defend the general welfare than that which existed before the Declaration of Independence.
According to Wilkerson, vice president Cheney and secretary of defense Rumsfeld form the core of the cabal. George W. Bush becomes an "integral" part of it whenever his intervention is needed. The cabal has been aided in concentrating power and carving out its pivotal role in policy-making, he asserted, by the carry over and expansion into the Bush administration of the influence of Cold War defense contractors. In fact, Wilkerson accused Cheney, who previous served as secretary of defense, of actually being "a member of what Dwight Eisenhower warned about . . . in 1961 in his farewell address, the military industrial complex". He asserted that the contemporary core of the military-industrial complex are defense contractors who -- like Lockheed, Grumman and Raytheon -- have become even more powerful now because "they're in every state. They've got every congressman, every senator. They've got it covered."
According to Wilkerson's analysis, the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal's power is a result not only of the influence of the military-industrial complex, and Congressional default, but of the failure of senior level federal officials in the executive branch to discharge their responsibility to serve the public interest. He singled out Condoleezi Rice in her role as national security advisor for egregiously failing to carry out the traditional and pivotal function of the advisor to bring together the diverse views of all the stakeholders in the national security policy-making mix. She was more at pains to cultivate her influence with the president, he asserted, than to ensure the viewpoints of all key agencies were heard and heeded in an even-handed process in which all options were transparently considered.
The cabal described by Wilkerson sits astride the presidency and the department of defense (DOD), which is endowed with a $400 billion dollar annual budget that is periodically enriched with the addition of hundreds of billions of dollars authorized for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan by Congress, which is controlled by Republicans. By contrast, the U.S. department of state receives only $30 billion annually, so little that Wilkerson questioned whether it remains a key player in the policy-making mix at all. Clearly driven by unusual patriotism, passion and fear for the future, Wilkerson openly lamented the state department's fall from grace, likening its beseiged, barricaded embassies abroad to prisons -- "concertina-wired Abu Ghraibs".
So obscure are the rationales for the cabal's decision-making and so opaque are their decision-making processes, Wilkerson alleges, that few in the policy-making milieus he frequented understand what led the cabal to its decision to invade Iraq and why post-invasion decisions have led to such dismal outcomes. He asserted that the U.S. does have "strategic interests" in the Middle East that justify its presence in Iraq and, quite surprisingly, that if it does not hold the course it will have to return within 10 years with 5 million Americans to take over the entire region. But none of these interests can be served, he said, without thorough going reform of federal decision-making to prevent similar concentrations of power in the future.
His recommendations, which focused on revamping and re-integrating the structures and processes of federal decision-making, raised as many questions as they answered. Can they work when the influence of civil society, the American public at large, has been dwarfed by a national government that is dominated by a single political party, and its free market economic allies and the military-industrial complex? What groups outside of the incumbent administration have the motivation and leverage to provide an impetus for the reforms?
Can Wilkerson's remedies be put into action after a political party comprised of wealthy elites and core members of the military-industrial complex has spent 30 years currying the favor of a right wing electoral base of tens of millions of right wing conservatives and religious fundamentalists?
Can they work when that same political party has gained control of both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, as has the Republican Party, and when a majority of the members of the Supreme Court have been nominated by Republicans?
Can they work when core functions of the democratic process have been corrupted by campaign finance practices that allow special interest groups to buy votes through campaign contributions and their lobbyists to determine the outcomes of legislative processes? When both political parties, Republican and Democrat, have so severely gerrymandered electoral districts throughout the country that few races are competitive and few insurgents have a chance to present their candidacies? When electronic voting machines and the networks used to tally and transmit votes can easily be rigged by either political party in states where they are in power?
Wilkerson, who served for three years as chief of staff to former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell, went public on October 19, 2005 at a New America Foundation forum in Washington, D.C. and blew the whistle on what he calls the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal. He accused the cabal of masterminding the poorly planned and executed U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. By deliberately excluding traditional participants and agencies that have always been an integral part of the national security policy-making process, the cabal devised policies, strategies and tactics that were so unrealistic and ill-suited to actual conditions that they are increasing rather than decreasing violent deaths and terrorist attacks in the country.
Reviving Dwight Eisenhower's warning that the American people must vigilantly safeguard the republic against the intrigues of the "military-industrial complex" and the defense industry that drives it, Wilkerson used the forum to sound the alarm over the dangers U.S. citizens now face as a result of the cabal's weakening of the decision-making capabilities of the federal government and its capacity to protect the national interest. Should a nuclear bomb go off in an American city, or natural catastrophes or pandemics like the looming bird flu hit the U.S. mainland, U.S. citizens cannot count on the government in power to protect them. It is too inept at making decisions that work, as its response to the Katrina disaster has demonstrated. The chaos that is likely to ensue from any one of these calamites will reveal a government no better equipped to defend the general welfare than that which existed before the Declaration of Independence.
According to Wilkerson, vice president Cheney and secretary of defense Rumsfeld form the core of the cabal. George W. Bush becomes an "integral" part of it whenever his intervention is needed. The cabal has been aided in concentrating power and carving out its pivotal role in policy-making, he asserted, by the carry over and expansion into the Bush administration of the influence of Cold War defense contractors. In fact, Wilkerson accused Cheney, who previous served as secretary of defense, of actually being "a member of what Dwight Eisenhower warned about . . . in 1961 in his farewell address, the military industrial complex". He asserted that the contemporary core of the military-industrial complex are defense contractors who -- like Lockheed, Grumman and Raytheon -- have become even more powerful now because "they're in every state. They've got every congressman, every senator. They've got it covered."
According to Wilkerson's analysis, the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal's power is a result not only of the influence of the military-industrial complex, and Congressional default, but of the failure of senior level federal officials in the executive branch to discharge their responsibility to serve the public interest. He singled out Condoleezi Rice in her role as national security advisor for egregiously failing to carry out the traditional and pivotal function of the advisor to bring together the diverse views of all the stakeholders in the national security policy-making mix. She was more at pains to cultivate her influence with the president, he asserted, than to ensure the viewpoints of all key agencies were heard and heeded in an even-handed process in which all options were transparently considered.
The cabal described by Wilkerson sits astride the presidency and the department of defense (DOD), which is endowed with a $400 billion dollar annual budget that is periodically enriched with the addition of hundreds of billions of dollars authorized for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan by Congress, which is controlled by Republicans. By contrast, the U.S. department of state receives only $30 billion annually, so little that Wilkerson questioned whether it remains a key player in the policy-making mix at all. Clearly driven by unusual patriotism, passion and fear for the future, Wilkerson openly lamented the state department's fall from grace, likening its beseiged, barricaded embassies abroad to prisons -- "concertina-wired Abu Ghraibs".
So obscure are the rationales for the cabal's decision-making and so opaque are their decision-making processes, Wilkerson alleges, that few in the policy-making milieus he frequented understand what led the cabal to its decision to invade Iraq and why post-invasion decisions have led to such dismal outcomes. He asserted that the U.S. does have "strategic interests" in the Middle East that justify its presence in Iraq and, quite surprisingly, that if it does not hold the course it will have to return within 10 years with 5 million Americans to take over the entire region. But none of these interests can be served, he said, without thorough going reform of federal decision-making to prevent similar concentrations of power in the future.
His recommendations, which focused on revamping and re-integrating the structures and processes of federal decision-making, raised as many questions as they answered. Can they work when the influence of civil society, the American public at large, has been dwarfed by a national government that is dominated by a single political party, and its free market economic allies and the military-industrial complex? What groups outside of the incumbent administration have the motivation and leverage to provide an impetus for the reforms?
Can Wilkerson's remedies be put into action after a political party comprised of wealthy elites and core members of the military-industrial complex has spent 30 years currying the favor of a right wing electoral base of tens of millions of right wing conservatives and religious fundamentalists?
Can they work when that same political party has gained control of both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, as has the Republican Party, and when a majority of the members of the Supreme Court have been nominated by Republicans?
Can they work when core functions of the democratic process have been corrupted by campaign finance practices that allow special interest groups to buy votes through campaign contributions and their lobbyists to determine the outcomes of legislative processes? When both political parties, Republican and Democrat, have so severely gerrymandered electoral districts throughout the country that few races are competitive and few insurgents have a chance to present their candidacies? When electronic voting machines and the networks used to tally and transmit votes can easily be rigged by either political party in states where they are in power?
posted by the Third Force Network at 3:39 PM
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