Frum and Perle - scary!

David Frum and Richard Perle have a new book out called "An End to Evil" which calls for a radical change in U.S. policy. (Not that it hasn't been radical for the last year.) These guys are ... let's put it this way ... they are not "out of the loop", and clearly represent a segment of neocon thinking. David Brooks should read their book before penning more nonsense in the New York Times about neocons. Here are some highlights from their book as reported in the (anti-Semitic-according-to-Brooks) Forward:

• ... Frum and Perle call for universal biometric fingerprinting ...
  
  
• [Frum and Perle call for] a complete reform of the State Department ...
  
  
• ... Frum and Perle advocate firing George Tenet, director of the CIA ...
  
  
• ... Frum and Perle advocate ... relieving the FBI of the "counter-terrorism job it has bungled."
  
  
• Frum and Perle argue that "we must destroy regimes implicated in anti-American terrorism," and provide a list of potential targets, including North Korea, Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Iran.     "We must move boldly against them. . . . And we don't have much time," they write.
  
  
• [Frum and Perle advocate] immediate steps to bring about regime change in Iran and Syria ...
  
  
• [Frum and Perle propose] a military blockade of North Korea ...
  
  
• [Frum and Perle argue] that "a more closely integrated Europe is no longer an unqualified American interest," and that America should actively try to drive a wedge between France and the rest of the continent.
  
  

Had enough?

We watched the authors on the Charlie Rose show earlier this week, and boy, was it revealing.

Here are our notes from the program:

Perle - international law not sufficient to allow U.S. to go after a tyrant who abuses his people
Frum - Saddam a "charismatic extremist who gave hope to the people who hate the U.S." - therefore justified in taking him out
Perle - problems with State, CIA, FBI, (international) lawyers, UN
Perle - need to reform the military (due to technical advances), need to reform CIA
Frum - "It's not high-tech banditry [al Qaeda], it's a real war"
Perle - approves the use of threatening governments to obtain policy changes
Perle - on Saudi Arabia: "If you take the money away, the extremist groups are a tiny little fringe" [but that undercuts their Clash of Civilization theme.]
Frum - stop the money -> stop the terrorist(s) [also undercuts Clash of Civ.]
Perle - "Democracies don't make war" "wars are started by dictators who need wars to stay in power" (!)
Frum - reason reform of govt. agencies hasn't happened is not the problem of Bush or Republicans in congress, but due to "inertia"
Perle - on Syria: CIA far too eager to accept crumbs (of intel. help)
Perle - threat of terrorist attack [is equivalent to] threat of invasion across borders
Frum - U.N. can't be arbiter of when the U.S. is able to defend itself
Perle - U.N. can't be arbiter for any nation.
Perle - Saddam was a threat to our survival: hated US, had WMD, had used in past, had capacity to produce, on verge of getting out from under sanctions
Frum - the "debate about Iraq is behind us"
Frum - "terrorism is about lies; lies don't last"

posted by Quiddity at 1/10/2004 10:28:00 PM