 Meet the McCain
Team
Elliot Cohen
Given John McCain's firm allegiance to the core missions of The Project
for the New American Century (PNAC), it should come as no surprise
that many of the old PNAC guard have shown up as foreign policy advisers
in McCain's current presidential campaign, and are likely re-emerge
as high officials in his administration if he becomes president. Here
are snapshots of some of these potential members of a McCain Cabinet,
giving their PNAC profiles, their advisory capacities in the McCain
2008 presidential campaign, and their politics.
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William Kristol
Editor and founder of
Washington-based political magazine, Weekly Standard.
PNAC co-founder. Foreign policy adviser. Has consistently
been wrong in his foreign policy analyses regarding
Iraq. For example, on March 5, 2003, he stated, "I
think we'll be vindicated when we discover the weapons
of mass destruction and when we liberate the people
of Iraq." |
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Robert Kagan
Served in State Department in Reagan
administration on Policy Planning Staff. PNAC co-founder.
Foreign policy adviser. Has defended global expansionism
by claiming it is an American tradition: "Americans'
belief in the possibility of global transformation-the
'messianic' impulse-is and always has been the more
dominant strain in the nation's character." |
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Randy Scheunemann
Former adviser to Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Co-director and executive
director of Committee for Liberation of Iraq. Defense
and foreign policy coordinator. With regard to recent
National Intelligence Estimate finding that Iran discontinued
its nuclear weapons program in 2003, stated "a
careful reading of the NIE indicates that it is misleading." And
he claimed that the NIE harmed our efforts to achieve
a "greater diplomatic consensus" to crack
down on Iran. |
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James Woolsey
Director of CIA, Clinton administration,
1993-1995. (Reported to have met only twice with Clinton
during time as CIA chief.) PNAC signatory. Energy and
national security adviser. Speaking to a group of college
students in 2003 about Iraq, he stated that "… the
United States is engaged in World War IV." Described
the Cold War as the third world war. Then said, "This
fourth world war, I think, will last considerably longer
than either World Wars I or II did for us. Hopefully
not the full four-plus decades of the Cold War." |
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John R. Bolton
Former U.S. ambassador to U.N. (Nomination
to U.N. rejected by Senate, but George W. Bush put
him in place on a recess appointment. Name floated
for possible secretary of state for McCain. PNAC director.
Ardent supporter of McCain for president in 2009. Publicly
derided the United Nations: In 1994, he stated "there
is no United Nations. There is an international community
that occasionally can be led by the only real power
left in the world, and that's the United States, when
it suits our interest, and when we can get others to
go along." Advocates attacking Iran. |
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Robert B. Zollick
President, World Bank. PNAC signatory.
Announced in 2006 he would be joining McCain presidential
campaign for domestic and foreign policy but instead
replaced Wolfowitz as president of World Bank in 2007.
Has touted virtues of corporate globalization under
the rubric of "comprehensive free trade." But
as Kevin Watkins, head researcher for Oxfan, stated,
he pays no heed to the effects of the "blind pursuit
of US economic and corporate special interests" on
the world's poor. |
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Gary Schmitt
American Enterprise Institute for Public
Policy Research (home to other PNAC members including
Wolfowitz and Pearle.) PNAC director. Foreign policy
adviser. Defended warrantless eavesdropping on Americans
by claiming that Constitution "created a unitary
chief executive. That chief executive could, in times
of war or emergency, act with the decisiveness, dispatch
and, yes, secrecy, needed to protect the country and
its citizens." |
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Richard L. Armitage
Former deputy secretary of state
in George W. Bush administration. PNAC signatory. Foreign
policy adviser. By his own admission, was responsible
for leaking CIA agent Valerie Plame's CIA identity
to the press. Allegedly involved in Iran-Contra affair
during Reagan administration. |
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Max Boot
Council on Foreign Relations. PNAC signatory.
Foreign policy adviser. Stating that U.S. should "unambiguously
... embrace its imperial role," has advocated
attacking other Middle East countries in addition to
Iraq and Iran, including Syria. Said McCain's "bellicose
aura" could "scare the snot out of our enemies," who "would
be more afraid to mess with him" than with other
then-potential presidential candidates. |
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Henry A. Kissinger
President Nixon's secretary of
state. Embraces expansionist power politics. Consultant.
Played major role in secret bombings of Cambodia during
Nixon administration as well as having had alleged
involvement in covert assassination plots and human
rights violations in Latin America. |
What's in Store for Us if McCain Becomes President
That McCain has surrounded himself with such like-minded advisers
who support the narrow PNAC agenda speaks to his unwillingness
to hear and consider alternative perspectives. In fact, six out
of 10 civilian foreign advisers to McCain are PNAC veterans.
Even the newly appointed deputy communications director of the
McCain campaign, Michael Goldfard, has been a research associate
for PNAC. A die-hard adherent of the "unitary
authority" of the chief executive, he recently stated that the
framers of the United States Constitution advocated an "executive
with near dictatorial power in pursuing foreign policy and war."
Add to this list other major PNAC figures such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard
Pearle, Zalmay Khalilzad, and Dick Cheney who would probably play
a significant role in a McCain administration and it is clear in what
direction this nation would be moving.
A McCain administration would be likely to:
- Invest incredible amounts of money in sustaining multiple, simultaneous
wars overseas at the expense of neglecting pressing concerns at home,
including the economy, health care, the environment and education.
- Stockpile nuclear weapons, while seeking to prohibit its adversaries
from having them.
- Attempt to shield the U.S. with a multilayered missile defense system
based on land, at sea, in the air and in space, while demanding that
nations that are not its allies become sitting ducks.
- Strive to develop more potent chemical and biological weapons--not
to mention the genotype-specific variety, while at the same time
claiming to be fighting a "war on terror."
- Legalize "Total Information Awareness"-going through
all Americans' phone calls, e-mail messages and other personal
records without needing probable cause.
- Take control of the Internet, globally using it as an offensive political
weapon-while claiming to be spreading democracy throughout the world.
- Dispense with checks and balances in favor of the "unitary executive
authority" of the president.
- Alienate nations that refuse to join our war coalitions.
- Deny that there is (or can be) a United Nations.
A McCain administration would rule by fear, perceive right in
terms of military might and subscribe to the idea of "do as I say and
not as I do." As a consequence, instead of rebuilding the image
of America as a model of justice and civility, it would further sully
respect for this nation throughout the world.
NOTE: This is excerpted from a longer article entitled: John
McCain's Chilling Project for America that can be read at: www.truthdig.com
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