By Nancy Thomson

February 2001, Dr Paul Wolfowitz was nominated by President Bush to be Deputy Secretary of Defense. This position put him in charge of the day to day operations at the Pentagon. Wolfowitz was no stranger to the Defense Department having served two previous tours there. He was also Dean of the International Relations School of Advanced Studies at John Hopkins University. In this capacity he guided 750 students on campuses in Washington D.C., China and Italy. In addition to being a good fund-raiser, Wolfowitz modernized the curriculum changing the focus from the Cold War to studies of globalism. Besides teaching at John Hopkins, he also taught at Yale. Employed as Under Secretary of Defense reporting to Dick Cheney from 1989 to 1993, Wolfowitz and his staff plotted the strategy following the Cold War.

He served various international positions during the Reagan administration concerned with Asian affairs and was a member of the advisory board of the Foreign Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) journal (Biography of Deputy Secretary of Defense, http://www.defenselink.mil/bios/depscecdef-bio.html

This impressive biography doesn't include Wolfowitz's membership on several corporate boards. One of these is Hasbro, a major investor in Asian toy factories. Nor does it mention his membership in the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and Bilderbergs. Wolfowitz with bipartisan support backed authoritarian figures like Suharto in Indonesia, and Chun, leader of South Korea and jailer of many dissidents. For the most part, the American people were kept ignorant about the support of these dictators.

Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz formed a group of foreign policy advisors called the "Vulcans." Rice and Wolfowitz were brought into the present Bush administration by vice president Cheney. This group is known as the internationalist wing of the Republican Party espousing free trade and active roles overseas (Tim Shorrock, Paul Wolfowitz: A man to keep a close eye on, Asia Times, 3/21/01)

In 1998, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, at that time working in the private sector, lobbied Clinton to start a war with Iraq. A letter was sent to Clinton from the Project for a New American Century, and signed by William Kristol of the Weekly Standard. This communication stated that a war with Iraq was necessary due to that country's ability to manufacture weapons of mass destruction, WMD. Further the "Project" proposed that the U.S. should prevent any other country from challenging our leadership. In addition, we would secure our freedom by establishing friendly democracies around the world. President Clinton was pursuing other matters at the time and didn't want to start a war (Jason Leopold, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz's war on Iraq began before 1998--Now it's official.

By the time Rumsfeld had become Secretary of Defense with Wolfowitz second in command in George W's administration the military situation was further advanced. The former military -industrial complex had grown into the military-industrial-congressional establishment (Jon Basil Utley, Answering the "Wolfowitz (Bush) Doctrine" on American Empire, 8/24/01)

Military bases were closing, and weapons systems were purchased before they were fully tested. While bases were being closed in the U.S. 110 military bases were being instituted overseas. There didn't seem to be an overall plan for the military security of the continental United States. After all, Congress gave us the Patriot's Act along with the Homeland Security Department and this would constitute our defense.

Propaganda mills started turning out stories about Iraq being the source of Anthrax showing up in the mail. This was followed by the intimation that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11attacks. Both of these claims have proved false. However the neocons in the Defense Department sometimes labeled the "Wolfowitz Cabal" used these incidents as a reason to push their war on Iraq. Neocon war hawks had international connections especially in Britain and Israel. They also had allies in other government departments. Media pundits warned of the international danger posed by Iraq, despite their lack of a navy, air force or delivery system.

Wolfowitz admitted that using the WMD reason for attacking Iraq was determined to be the most plausible. Liberating the Iraqi people was an afterthought. The U.S. and Britain had been occupying half of the Iraqi airspace and bombing them for 12 years. Despite this fact, Wolfowitz assured all that the U.S. invading military would be welcomed with open arms. The confrontation would be brief. This victory would create a domino effect and other Arab states would declare themselves democracies. No plans were made for a guerilla type defense conducted by those defying an invading occupation.

On "Meet the Press" Wolfowitz stated "Intelligence about terrorism is inherently murky, and the U.S. must be prepared to act on less-then perfect information"------(Orange County Register, 7/28/03)

Where do we go from here? Troops returning home are being sent back to Iraq again. Help from allies includes bags of rice and other products but not enough troops to replace any of our military. As Paul Craig Roberts said, "Neocons Admit They've Blown It--Is The Draft Next?"