A Level Gaze

A Level Gaze

"What effect must it have on a nation if it learns no foreign languages? Probably much the same as that which a total withdrawal from society has upon an individual."
--G.C. Lichtenberg

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

Brooks Distorts, I Decide

Do you ever get the sense that David Brooks is becoming unhinged from reality?

Theories about the tightly knit neocon cabal came in waves. One day you read that neocons were pushing plans to finish off Iraq and move into Syria. Web sites appeared detailing neocon conspiracies; my favorite described a neocon outing organized by Dick Cheney to hunt for humans. The Asian press had the most lurid stories; the European press the most thorough. Every day, it seemed, Le Monde or some deep-thinking German paper would have an exposé on the neocon cabal, complete with charts connecting all the conspirators.

The full-mooners fixated on a think tank called the Project for the New American Century, which has a staff of five and issues memos on foreign policy. To hear these people describe it, PNAC is sort of a Yiddish Trilateral Commission, the nexus of the sprawling neocon tentacles.

Poor David is only a political commentator. How was he to know that signatories to PNAC's founding statement of principles included Bush's Vice President, Secretary of Defense, his Assistant Secretary of Defense, and his brother, Jeb? Maybe David only paid attention to the Jewish (or "Yiddish") supporters of PNAC. I wonder why.

Brooks also thinks Richard Perle has "had almost no contact with President Bush. There have been hundreds of references, for example, to Richard Perle's insidious power over administration policy, but I've been told by senior administration officials that he has had no significant meetings with Bush or Cheney since they assumed office. If he's shaping their decisions, he must be microwaving his ideas into their fillings."

Gee, David, I guess the guy who was chairing the Defence Policy Board following 9/11 and during the run-up to the second Gulf War, had little or no influence on administration policy.

What does the DPB do, anyway?

Excerpt of Objectives and Scope of Activities from charter:

1. The Defense Policy Board will serve the public interest by providing the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary for Policy with independent, informed advice and opinion concerning major matters of defense policy. It will focus upon long-term, enduring issues central to strategic planning for the Department of Defense and will be responsible for research and analysis of topics, long or short range, addressed to it by the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary for Policy.

Maybe Perle had meetings with Donald Rumsfeld, who, then communicated with Bush and Cheney. Anything's possible.

Or, maybe Brooks' selective use of information supports the point he's trying to make, which would not be supported otherwise. What's that called again? All I can come up with is "filthy" and "disgusting."

Update: Quiddity at Uggabugga has a diagram of Perle's microwave apparatus.

posted by David at 1/06/2004 10:09:00 AM ::

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