Marble Composition

"Oh George, Not the Livestock"

Someone just asked me if I knew anything about William Kristol. Little did I know I would go all diarrhea on him:

Yeah, I know quite a bit about him. Most notably, he's the Editor of the Weekly Standard, but he's also the Chairman of the Project for a New American Century (the think tank that pushed for the Iraq more than any other). He's the poster-boy pundit for the neoconservative movement, and of course he's a regular panel member on Fox News Sunday.

More importantly, the PNAC was the group that wrote Clinton a letter in 1998 pushing for the removal of Hussein after Saddam kicked out the weapons inspectors, and the whole affair triggered the resolution by Congress stating that regime change in Iraq would be official U.S. policy. Kristol repeatedly cited that resolution to push for war. What you won't find on the PNAC website are two names: Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. The site has been scrubbed of all past members, including the incredibly loathesome Richard Perle. Kristol's influence in the Bush administration is very low-key but also very strong (look who he was alligned with). What I found highly alarming was that after reading the White House's National Security Strategy of 2002, I thought, "I know I've read this before, but where did it come from?" And then it hit me. It came from the PNAC document Rebuilding America's Defenses. In fact, the percentage of Defense Department spending increases that the PNAC recommended are almost identical to what Congress approved.

Kristol heartily advocates regime change in Iran and Syria, although I think he wants to take on those wimps to the west of Iraq first. When asked, "with whose army, Bill?", he says, of Syria anyway, that he wants airstrikes and border incursions. Kristol's vision of American military power seems to be almost limitless; he sees no constraints or shortages, only high minded goals where war obviously leads to peace.

Bill also believes, which for me is a classic, that the road to peace in Jerusalem makes its first stop in Bahgdad. Via American invasion of Iraq that is (um, that's not a joke). He figured that Iran would be awed and cowed by the frightening sight of the American military next door, and that they would kneel appropriately. If you've read the recent headlines about Iran, not so much. They're not impressed.

(Wow, this is getting long, but you asked!)

Above all, Bill has no interest in American security. Bill's main interest is Isreal's security. If that means that America's military has to conquer every country west of Afghanistan (the Afghanis, Iran, Iraq, Syria), then so be it. That would suit Bill just right. Every time he opens his mouth, he needs to make sure that you know that Isreali interests are U.S. interests. The two are one in the same.

Two other bits; his father is Irving Kristol, and his mother is Gertrude Himmelfarb. Irving is seen as the grandfather of the neoconsevrative movement, and to him we're now in "World War IV" (WWIII being the Cold War). I've heard modern conservatives say that when they hear the term "neoconservative" applied to anyone, they think it's anit-semetic slur. Bill's Dad wrote the fucking book on it.

Not that Bill's not handy: he served as Vice President Dan Quayle's Chief of Staff.

I can picture Bill leaving a staff meeting with Dan saying, "Does that guy know what a pumpkin is?"

posted by FuzzFinger @ 2/01/2006 09:23:00 PM