Perle Washes His Hands Of Iraq: I Was Not An ‘Architect Of That War,’ Neocons Had No Influence
Perle Washes His Hands Of Iraq: I Was Not An ‘Architect Of That War,’ Neocons Had No Influence
Over the past few weeks, many Bush administration officials have begun rewriting history in an effort to burnish President Bush’s legacy. Following suit, neoconservative war hawk Richard Perle has taken the opportunity to polish his own record during the Bush years — mainly on Iraq.
In the latest issue of The National Interest, Perle devotes 4,600 words — not to congratulate President Bush for invading Iraq — but to wipe his, and the whole neoconservative movement’s, hands clean of the whole affair. In the essay, he categorically denies that both he — and neoconservative ideology in general — had any influence on the Bush administration in its decision to go to war:
I have been widely but wrongly depicted as deeply involved in the making of administration policy, especially with respect to Iraq. Facts notwithstanding, there are some fifty thousand entries on Google in which I am described as an “architect,” and often as “the architect,” of the Iraq War. I certainly supported and argued publicly for the decision to remove Saddam, as I do in what follows. But had I been the architect of that war, our policy would have been very different. [...]
But about the many mistakes made in Iraq, one thing is certain: they had nothing to do with ideology. They did not draw inspiration from or reflect neoconservative ideas and they were not the product of philosophical or ideological influences outside the government.
Perle is right. He strongly advocated publicly for the invasion of Iraq, especially after 9/11, even making claims that Saddam Hussein had links to Osama bin Laden (an assertion he later claimed he never said). But in fact, Perle had direct access to top administration officials during the run up to the war. Former CIA director George Tenet recalled that shortly after 9/11, Perle told him that “Iraq has to pay a price for what happened yesterday, they bear responsibility.”
Moreover, the neoconservative influence on the Bush administration, particularly regarding Iraq, has been well documented. For Perle to claim otherwise is beyond absurd.
Seeing that Perle cannot deny he supported the invasion, he then offers two separate justifications for both outcomes of the WMD argument. First, he says the belief that Saddam had WMD was “widely accepted” at the time of the invasion. But, noting that no WMD were found, Perle then says the “salient issue” was not that Saddam had WMD but that he “could produce them” someday. Nevertheless, Perle concludes, “no one should take seriously the facile conclusion that invading Iraq was mistaken because we now know Saddam did not possess stockpiles of WMD.”
Except this statement is a direct contradiction of what Perle wrote earlier this year in an article for The American Interest. Then, he claimed if we knew Saddam had no WMD in March 2003, the U.S. shouldn’t have invaded:
If Saddam had provided solid, confirmable evidence of the destruction of the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction he was believed to possess, we would not have invaded.
Indeed, no matter how many incoherent, contradictory and misleading essays Perle concocts trying to absolve himself from the Iraq debacle, like his fellow Iraq war architects, it’s clear he has no leg to stand on.
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That’s funny because Iraq is the only reason I know who this sunken-eyed schlub is.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:53 pmRats that can’t get off a sunken ship.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:53 pmWell, good luck with that. The sad thing is that the media will let them all off the hook. Institutional memory is so short that if Perle says he had nothing to do with it then he had nothing to do with it. He’ll be an expert on international affairs, bloviating about invading Iran or nuking Palestine in no time.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:55 pmDoes Richard Perle have dual citizenship – Israel/America?
January 8th, 2009 at 12:57 pmThese people can deny or spin all they want but we know what happened, our kids know what happened and our grandkids know what happened and long after these people are burning in hell there will still be true American patriots who will tell the truth.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:57 pmNice try, Lady MacBeth.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:57 pmI’m surprised he didn’t blame it all on Dubya.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:01 pmBut had I been the architect of that war, our policy would have been very different.
No, you would have invaded Iraq. I remember the years of listening to the Bush Administration fend off all criticism of Iraq by saying they had to fine tune the strategy, or change this or that tactic. Perle is doing the same thing here: “see, I would have sent ‘em in on the left flank and everything would be different…”
The fact is, the central criticism of the Iraq war is not in the details, but in the fact that it exists at all. There is nothing Perle would have done differently. He would have leveraged the same corporate interests in rebuilding and been fleeced by them. He would have treated all the citizens of that country as a monolithic cardboard-cutout “Arab” and be unable to manage their interests.
The only thing one could do to handle Iraq differently would be not to invade it.
There are no “ideas” (and let’s face it, we’re being charitable when we use that term) that Perle and his neocon friends have that is not thoroughly and utterly discredited at this point. They clearly are incapable of performing logic from premise to conclusion, but rather justify it backwards.
At present, neocons are nearly as discredited by history as are neo-Nazis.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:02 pmAnd I’ll bet he didn’t vote twice for The Worst President Ever™.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:02 pmIf you have access to databases of scholarly journals online, I find this article to be quite good on the issue of the neocons’ influence over Iraq policy: Russell A. Burgos, “Origins of Regime Change: ‘Ideapolitik’ on the Long Road to Baghdad, 1993-2000,” in the journal Security Studies (2008). There’s a lot of inter-scholarly debate stuff but when it gets down to Perle, etc., it can’t be beat.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:03 pm.
Speaking of, “THAT guy looks EVIL…”
.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pmI nominate Richard Perle for the Alberto R. Gonzales “I Can’t Remember Award”.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pmNeocons don’t take responsibility for their words or actions. Ever.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pmThe word ARCHITECT freaks him out. How about ENGINEER, or ENABLER, INSTIGATOR, CHEERLEADER, PROFITEER, WARMONGER, etc. The possibilities are numerous, whatever fits best!
January 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pmOh, Perle’s polishing something, alrighty… but it ain’t his ‘record”…
January 8th, 2009 at 1:07 pmNo matter how hard he tries to scrub… the stench will always be there
January 8th, 2009 at 1:07 pmI’m sure Mr. Perle expects to be paid to wash his hands.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:09 pmSo now do we expect to hear the same from Paul Wolfowitz and Bill Kristol and the entire neo-conservative pack of morons?
January 8th, 2009 at 1:09 pmMore Perles of Wisdumb.
Perle and the PNAC group WERE the architects of the Iraq War. George Bush was the general contractor, a poor one perhaps, but nonetheless in charge of putting the plans into action. You guys built it, you have to live there.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:12 pmThe turd polishing continues…
January 8th, 2009 at 1:12 pmPerle is but one of a whole bunch of war criminals in the Bush regime.
OT- I got to the threads really late today due to my workload. Had to pick up where I left off yesterday on the thread about porn bailout. After reading ruptured rectum’s rants, there can be no doubt that he’s totally insane. Bet he makes his “wife” wear a burkha too.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:15 pmSo, if the Iraqi debacle is not the fault of Perle, or Bush, or anyone else in the conservative movement, then who is responsible?
The media? Them there liberals? Clinton?
These Bushbots kool-aid drinkers are too stupid for words.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:23 pmIt takes a lot to grab my attention, and this post surely did.
Anyone who wants to know exactly what a criminal this twerp is, all you have to do is read up on your Sy Hersh in The New Yorker. Their online archive is fairly substantial, but Sy laid out the story that in 2000, in the midst of the Presidential campaign AND the Clinton Camp David peace talks between Arafat and Israel, it was Richard Perle himself who made several cell phone calls to Barak and insisted that Barak take his plan off the table, because Bush was going to broker an even better deal for Israel. So the talks collapsed.
Not only did Perle commit a federal crime by interfering with official foreign policy, not only did he in essence commit treason, he is directly responsible for every death in Palestine and Israel since then–the Second Intifada was a direct result of this breakdown.
He is a War Pig among war pigs, kids. And his lamentations here would be laughable, if only so much death, destruction and debt were not directly involved.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:25 pmNeoCon are LIARS … so who cares what comes out of his shitty mouth.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:25 pmWho do these guys think will be blamed for this mess? Do they think we have forgotten?
History will not be kind to these “Lord Farquad’s”
January 8th, 2009 at 1:27 pmIt’s not only Bush who is trying to re-write history, it’s the entire Republican party. It’s not going to work, but you have to give them credit for trying.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:28 pmlefty Says:
“That’s funny because Iraq is the only reason I know who this sunken-eyed schlub is.”
Daddy-O Says:
ha ha
Funniest line I’ve heard all day.
And here’s the best NEWS I’ve heard since Ted Stevens was convicted.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:29 pmThe may mistakes made in Iraq [...] did not draw inspiration from or reflect neoconservative ideas and they were not the product of philosophical or ideological influences outside the government.
The contradictions in this statement are truly mind-boggling.
How can these mistakes not reflect conservative ideas, when the invasion of Iraq was the brainchild, the pet project of a conservative administration and their conservative advisors?
Is this man trying to say the Bush administration is/was not conservative?
To make matters worse, I am sure there are people out there who will believe his claptrap.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:30 pmUncle Ho,
January 8th, 2009 at 1:30 pmDon’tcha mean Daryyl’s husband in a burka?
Perle is coward. You can bet your ass if the war had turned out to be a sucess he’d be contracting to have statues of himself built on every corner. But in typical coward fashion, when the going gets tough, he gets to lying.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:32 pmBut had I been the architect of that war, our policy would have been very different.
I just can’t get over that quote. They all say it. “If I were in charge, I would have done the same thing right!” Yeah, like the whole problem was that the same decisions weren’t executed by somebody as awesome as you. Even Bush and Cheney were saying that changing a few things here or there would turn the war from sucky to awesome overnight.
It reminds me a lot of those neo-Nazis who protest that they aren’t Hitler supporters because Hitler managed things badly.
.
Fred Says:
History will not be kind to these “Lord Farquad’s”
That is perfect.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:33 pmLIAR LIAR !! This man counts on the media not calling him a liar. He counts on short term memory of ill informed Americans. And guess what? He is right.
The trouble is, like all neocons he now wants to distance himself from something he supported. From all that he wanted and salivated for this country. The trouble with him and all neocons they are unable to see ahead. They have no alternative view as to what might happen if they are wrong. Consequently they flounder.
He is a pathetic excuse for an American. Now he says it’s not his fault. Why he was practically an innocent bystander. By next year he will say he never met Bush. And he never signed onto PNAC.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:34 pmDo you think maybe Perle is hoping for an outgoing appointment to THE MINISTRY OF THRUTH?
January 8th, 2009 at 1:40 pmDick Cheney, Scooter Libby, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Dundes, Peter W. Rodman, John Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, Richard Perle, William Kristol, Zalmay Khalilzad…
Just a sampling of PNAC signatories that are an integral part of the Bush Administration and it’s policies.
From PNACS Statement of Principles:
“They(Conservatives) have not set forth guiding principles for American foreign policy. They have allowed differences over tactics to obscure potential agreement on strategic objectives.”
“We aim to change this. We aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership.”
So Mr. Perle categorically denies that both he — and neoconservative ideology in general — had any influence on the Bush administration in its decision to go to war? I’d say, “Mission accomplished” you filthy chickenhawk warmongering propagandist! Your hands are as bloody as your brothers Dick Cheney, Norman Podhertz, William Kristol and your stooge George Bush.
If Obama is worth his mettle he will ask the Senate to put forth legislation declaring PNAC to be a terrorist organization, have their funds frozen and when enough evidence is gathered have them all thrown in prison for terrorizing our Nation for the past decade and a half.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:41 pmMax; oops, you’re right. my bad.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:41 pmThe definition of putz.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:46 pmObviously he’s in no way responsible. Yes, and the swastika is just a Tibetan good luck charm.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:48 pmThat’s fine. Richard can just do all of his future reading from the W “liberry” and he won’t have his beautiful mind troubled by the truth.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:52 pmPNAC=Piss-soaked Neocons And Conservatives
To a one, each of PNAC’s signatories would wet themselves if dropped into a war zone wearing an American uniform. Their love of war is equalled only by their reluctance to actually stand up and fight for their beliefs. They sit in the shadows, manipulating weak-minded Republicans and the media towards their goals. When overwhelmingly proven wrong, they back away from their previous statements and the finger pointing begins. Unfortunately for the rest of the civilized world, these fascists wield too much power and have the wholehearted backing of every major media outlet. NBC included, as I have yet to hear KO make mention of this nefarious organization’s fingerprints being on many of the world’s woes. I’m convinced that this is ONE subject that is off limits to Countdown, CNN etal. A harsh light desperately needs to be shown on these cockroaches so the world can see them for the blood hungry criminals that they are.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:53 pmWhen neocons move their lips They are lying
January 8th, 2009 at 1:56 pmThe IDF is using white phosphorus on Gaza
January 8th, 2009 at 1:58 pmBack in 2002, I was watching the news when they showed a clip of the UN inspectors grilling an Iraqi at a former nuclear research site. It went something like this:
UN INSPECTOR: Where is your research building?
IRAQI:(pointing to a pile of rubble) Your weapons inspectors destroyed it in 1995.
UN INSPECTOR: I need proof. Where do you keep the records?
IRAQI:(pointing to a different pile of rubble) We kept them in a building which used to be there. Your President Clinton dropped bombs on it in 1998 and blew it up.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:59 pmHere’s a lovely op-ed piece authored by peacenik Richard Perle from the Washington Post from June 2006. He’s obviously not trying to influence George Bush’s foreign policies (wink*) and beating the drums for war with Iran:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/23/AR2006062301375.html
Can you spell p-r-o-p-a-g-a-n-d-a ?
January 8th, 2009 at 2:10 pmWhat a difference four years make.
Right after the invasion, neo-cons and their groupies couldn’t stop beating their collective chest, in complete adulation of their swashbuckling, tough-talking (mis)Leader.
Now, they can’t run away from their own mess fast enough.
Conservatives keep proving the old saying: “Victory has many fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”
January 8th, 2009 at 2:21 pmI suggest a contest between Perle, Wolfowicz Rumsfeld, Cheney and Feith. Arm them with hand grenades, turn them loose in the woods with walkie talkies and let them debate. When one is lying let the others lob one at him if they can see him. The last liar standing gets sent to the Hague.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:23 pmYeah, ok. This is just the Geritol version of “the dog ate my homework.”
Idiots.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:23 pmKarma’s a beotch, Perle. And she don’t listen to inveterate liars trying to suspend their righteous sentence.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:28 pmDepends on what the meaning of NOT is.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:28 pmIt’s amazing to me that these Neo-Nitwits don’t think that people can research what they have said more then two weeks back.
This is just another attempt at “Revisionist History” of a failed policy.
The Neo-Nitwits have failed at everything in their plans for world domination through “Pax American”. Their only successes have been in driving up gas prices and draining Billions of dollars from American consumers for their partners in BIG OIL, and getting the shrub to let their NIC supporters into the Treasury to take what they wanted.
They failed in their plan, but made a shitload on money in the process. In chaos, there is great opportunity to steal.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:29 pmOh, yeah? Well… when we’re all dead and long gone, history will judge this man as a hero and a statue of him will be erected in front of the McDonald’s who’s business will just be booming right next to the Disney World in Baghdad.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:29 pmexcept they’ll be only western patrons of these businesses because Iraqis will have long perished from the use of Depleted Uranium.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:32 pmthat’s MIC (Military Industrial Complex) supporters.
sorry….
January 8th, 2009 at 2:33 pmPerle’s comment has to be on a par with reports that the astronauts admitted never visiting the moon.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:37 pmHo hum. Another lying Rethuglican scumbag. Must be a slow news day, that’s such old news that a Sunday New York Times wrapping isn’t enough to hide the odor.
Cheers,
January 8th, 2009 at 3:03 pmOf course Mr Perle had nothing to do with Iraq and George Bush completely read and understoood the August 2001 PDB about Bin Ladin attacking the US.
Mr Perle had nothing to do with Iraq and George Bush never authorized the Shock and Awe bombing of Iraq.
What a bunch of lying scumbags.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:09 pmhttp://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm
January 8th, 2009 at 3:13 pmThe architects of the Iraq invasion were ready in 1998. 9-11-2001 was merely a lame excuse used to convince others.
Perle is trying to lay groundwork to defeat war crimes tribunals.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:20 pmThe NeoCon plan included just such a cover if/when it failed. How can this surprise anyone?
January 8th, 2009 at 3:23 pmAh, Richard, you forgot to mention that you’re not a lier.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:34 pmHe is known as “The Prince of Darkness” among his friends.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:49 pmPerle forgets that fellow PNAC signatory John Yoo, card-carrying neocon, had his ass parked right in the middle of BushCo and he WAS the architect for the administration’s torture “policy”. So, his claim that neocons had nothin’ to do with the Iraq war is horse pucky.
Meanwhile, I’m both proud and intrigued that there are 50,000 Google articles linking Perle to the Iraq war. I suggest that we all go post more references on our blogs and Facebook and Twitter and everywhere else, and see if we can double that .
Why has there always been a dearth of the word “neocon” in the MSM? It’s like they don’t exist. Like we imagined them or something.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:57 pmRichard Perle will forever remain the symbol of the rotten Zionist.
January 8th, 2009 at 4:12 pmand when for years passes and this bullshit has failed to happen, then what shall I do with your words?
January 8th, 2009 at 5:12 pmNettles Says: Hindsight’s 20/20.
And when your head is planted firmly up your arse, that’s the only kind of sight ya got.
If Clinton was the “architect” of the Iraq War, I wonder why the war mongering right wingers are so p.o.’d at him all the time? Shouldn’t he be there guiding hero?
January 8th, 2009 at 5:20 pmA revealing reason for war was once offered by our friend Richard Perle, from a AP report, “Top Republicans Break With Bush on Iraq Strategy”, August 15, 2002
…
Richard N. Perle, a former Reagan administration official and one of the leading hawks who has been orchestrating an urgent approach to attacking Iraq, said today that Mr. Scowcroft’s arguments were misguided and naïve.
“I think Brent just got it wrong,” he said by telephone from France. “The failure to take on Saddam after what the president said would produce such a collapse of confidence in the president that it would set back the war on terrorism.”
…
We were not even in this war at the time, yet Perle insisted on saving America’s face already. In any case Perle’s statement reveals the simple crude political connection between war and the collapse of confidence in Bus.
And this connection is really about the threat to his re-election, not everyone’s fight against terrorism.
In any case, this isn’t even the original LBJ-version of face saving, which was supposedly to maintain America’s credibility, (and which ironically, destroyed it for a generation). Rather this is Richard Nixon’s version, of fine-tuning his re-election chances, his political ego and the most importantly his historical reputation. We destroyed 5 million faces in Southeast Asia in the ’60s and ’70s to save the abstract face of our country, and because of people like Perle, Cheeney, and Bush, etc., the moral and ethical standards to decide on a war were reduced to nothing.
January 8th, 2009 at 5:23 pmAnother candidate for Axis of Stupidity and Sore Losers? P’raps we should add Axis of Attempted Face-saving.
January 8th, 2009 at 5:27 pmHistory won’t forget Dick.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:48 pmThese Republican liars don’t even care what they are teaching our (and their) children– lie & keep on lying. I’m sure when their children lie to them, it’s a very different story.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:19 pmNext he will say he didn’t give his girlfriend a cushy job.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:24 pmGirlfriend? Perle has been married to the same woman for 30 years. Perhaps you’re confusing him with Wolfowitz? Perhaps he was on the grassy knoll too?
January 8th, 2009 at 7:53 pmWhat a boldfaced LIAR! How can these people face members of their families after such obviously false statements? I mean they do realize that just a very basic Google Search will reveal they are not telling the truth.
January 8th, 2009 at 8:43 pmIf there was EVER a reason to use “rolling on the floor laughing my ass off!” THIS IS IT. ROFLMAO!!!!
January 8th, 2009 at 8:56 pmHey Dicky Perle! You ARE a WAR CRMINAL!!!!! There is plenty of evidence of that, and we will not Forget it!!!!!!
January 8th, 2009 at 9:33 pmNettles Says:
YOU are insane. The rules idiocy that reign supreme on Planet Wingnut like it becomes true when I say it dont apply in the reality based universe. Your delusional fantasies have nothing to do with Planet Earth
January 9th, 2009 at 5:55 amIn any other country, Perle would be facing treason charges for lying the country into a war.
January 9th, 2009 at 6:46 amNot in the US: Israel is more important than the lives of thousands of US soldiers or of those who will be wandering around years after their discharge on street corners and intersections asking to “work for food”.
Note that Perle doesn’t deny that the Iraq War was founded on neocon ideology, only that the “mistakes” weren’t. But the biggest mistake was in going in there in the first place, and that was pure neocon. Just take a look at their website Project for the New American Century (better named the Project for America to Take Over the World).
Check out who signed their Statement of Principles. (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby, Abrams, Bennett, Jeb Bush–remember Jeb Bush!) Then check out their flagship monograph: Rebuilding America’s Defenses. At page 11, it states: “[W]e need to: . . . [2nd bullet point] • fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars.” Not just be capable of doing so, it outright advocates that we need to fight simultaneous major theater wars. Before you believe this was a typo, consider that this has been on this neocon website for more than eight years.
The only thing that saved us from these morons was that that same paper asserts that they were going to fund this suicide with the surpluses generated by the Bush administration. Instead we got record deficits, and will probably have them for the next eight years also, while we try to dig ourselves out of the hole into which the philosophies of Richard Perle and his neocon ilk have thrown us.
January 11th, 2009 at 10:43 amRichard Perle is attempting to use a Jedi mind trick. (”These are not the droids you’re looking for.”
Don’t think it’s gonna work.
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