Reprinted from Reader Supported News
The stated goals of George W. Bush's "War on Terror" followed the traditional path of American war rhetoric. The old standby, market-tested themes of "defending America ... fighting for freedom and democracy" were the cornerstones of every argument Bush administration officials presented to the American people in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. That was the "made for television version."
In fact the ideological basis for the War on Terror was set forth in policy statements by the The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) in the late 1990s.
PNAC was ostensibly, according to its founders William Kristol and Robert Kagan, a "non-profit educational organization." To that extent PNAC's early declarations proved true: an education of sorts was certainly in the offing.
The administration of George W. Bush would run deep with PNAC provocateurs. Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Scooter Libby, and Paul Wolfowitz were all original signatories to PNAC's 1997 Statement of Principles and their subsequent 1998 Letters on Regime Change in Iraq, flat-out advocating a U.S. assault on Iraq to effect regime change nearly four years before the attacks of September 11th, 2001. In all, 10 (by some reports as many as 20) of PNAC's original participants would serve in the Bush administration.
PNAC presented their rationale for overthrowing Saddam Hussein as a "blueprint for maintaining global US preeminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests." That was a cornerstone philosophy of the PNAC gang.
"Benevolent Global Hegemony"
William Kristol's personal brainchild was what he politely called "benevolent global hegemony." Of American making, of course. Professor Gary Dorrien described the plan as one that "sought to prevent any nation or group of nations from challenging America's global supremacy." That was the ideology that formed the basis for the Iraq Regime Change Letters.
Presumably, the U.S. invasion of Iraq was an act of benevolence in the minds PNAC inhabitants of the Bush II-era White House. George H.W. Bush caught wind of the same thinking from Paul Wolfowitz in 1990 and wanted no part of it.
Additional acts of benevolence included a global torture program and the brutal assault on Fallujah to destroy resistance once and for all in the heart of the Sunni triangle. The same Sunni triangle that today is the hub of ISIS's support and operations.
The Germans, the French, and Bush's War on Terror
The Bush family's sordid military history had its beginnings in World War II. That's a story unto itself. But clearly George W. Bush viewed the military world through a World War II lens. To go to war, he believed, he had to have the support of the central World War II players, with the Germans this time joining the Allies.
Bush did succeed in unifying Germany and France, but not as he planned. Both Germany and France in 2002 and 2003 were dead set against the plan to invade Iraq. Both countries would flatly refuse to join Bush's coalition or participate in what they viewed as a mistake of epic proportions.
Both German chancellor Gerhard Schroder and French president Jacques Chirac warned against an "adventure" that might lead to a "destruction of the coalition against terror." Bush and Cheney reacted vindictively, tapping Schroder's phone and threatening to ban French imports to the U.S.
Global Holy War
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