05/24/2004: 
That's Entertainment?
Book Review Corner: Rise Of The Vulcans by James Mann
"The invasion of Iraq was in many ways Dick Cheney's war, just as the George W. Bush administration had been in some respects Cheney's administration." ("Rise Of The Vulcans," pg. 369)
Once in a great while, a book comes along which confirms all of your worst fears. "Rise Of The Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet" by James Mann is one of those books. The premise of the book is that it examines the careers and political evolution of the "Vulcans," the insider nickname for the people that George W. Bush selected to run his administration: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Armitage.
I decided to read this book because it sounded like it was a well- done historical overwiew of Bush, Jr.'s advisors which would give me the necessary context to understand their actions and would finally explain the neoconservative viewpoint, which as far as I understand it, is that now that the United States has the biggest and best army, they can tell the countries that have not embraced democracy that they should get with the program- or else. This viewpoint grew out of the pro- military Republicans in the 1970s trying to figure out what was going on after Vietnam. Back then, many seemed to think America was in decline, our military was a mess, and that we needed to negotiate with the Soviet Union, as they seemed to be stronger. Rumsfeld got his start in the Nixon administration, and brought Cheney in during the Ford years. They challenged fellow Republican Henry Kissinger's policy of detente, ie negotiating with the Soviet Union with the idea that doing so with a non- democratic government was immoral. They got the upper hand on Kissinger, and Reagan was elected on a neoconservative platform in 1980. He strayed from the playbook by having the summits with Gorbachev, but played a big part in building up the Armed Forces from their post- Vietnam nadir. Powell was very active in this, but as HE HAD ACTUALLY SERVED IN VIETNAM, argued that if the US was going to do anything militarily, they should do so with overwhelming force and with a clear objective.
Then in 1989, the Cold War suddenly ended. The US no longer had a legitimate rival militarily speaking, and a new paradigm for dealing with the world was needed. The Bush, Sr. administration tried out two ideas: the invasion of Panama in 1989 and Desert Storm in 1991. Panama was a trial run for Iraq- ie going in on our own and destroying the place without asking for UN approval, and Desert Storm, a much larger operation, was done with it. Clinton tried the UN/New World Order way in Bosnia, and the Panama way in Somalia, Haiti, Kosovo, and Colombia. There has been no real rhyme or reason to post- Cold War foriegn policy, because there has never been such a situation in world history before. After September 11, with the Bush, Jr. "You're either with us or against us" doctrine, many of the leading neoconservatives were in positions of power in a crisis situation under a President who not only liked to delegate responsibility, but was really into their simplistic good/bad worldview. Iraq seemed to them to be the perfect target, and they had the excuse to finally see if they could force democracy on another country with overwhelming military might.
James Mann does an incredible job of bringing together the histories of all of Bush, Jr.'s advisors and their context in recent history and creating a big picture. When you get to the conclusion of the book and see the Bush, Jr. administration's actions with the necessary historical context, your jaw will drop. It does indeed seem that the shrill anti- Bush, Jr. forces were right in many ways- there wasn't exactly a conspiracy per se, but Bush, Jr.'s advisors had some ideas that they wanted to try out, and were given the opportunity by 9/11 to do whatever they wanted and had a President who was willing to sign off on whatever they wanted to do. There was only one problem- they went in and got Saddam, but in their hubris, they didn't seem to have a plan about what to do afterwards.
"Rise Of The Vulcans" opened my eyes to the reality that despite the Republicans having the upper hand on foriegn policy due to their vast practical experience in former Presidential administrations and their focus on it- as opposed to the Democratic focus on economic issues- these so- called Vulcans ("Damn it Spock, where's the logic?") formulated all of their ideas during the Cold War and Vietnam. Looking at the 21st Century globalized world through the coke- bottle glasses of the Cold War/ Vietnam era is ridiculous as it has no bearing on current events and has predictably produced the current mess. The "world as we know it" was born not in 1946 or 1965, but 1989, and the Democrats need to come up with a coherent foreign policy response that reflects these realities PDQ, otherwise the rest of the world- you know, the Lilliputian countries with the wussy armies- might decide enough is enough and decide to take down the big old Giant that we have suddenly become.
