Perles of Wisdom

Neocon maestro Richard Perle spoke at a National Interest lunch today filled with everyone from his old Reagan administration antagonist Richard Burt, former ambassador to Germany, to Milt Bearden, a former CIA officer, to Jim Lobe, who assiduously tracks the neocons as head of Inter Press Services. Perle was eloquent, suave--and in full denial mode: there is no such thing as neocons, if there were they never exercised much influence, Douglas J. Feith never ran a secret intelligence operation, and, in any case, there was ample room to suspect the quality of the CIA's information, and so on.

What was most interesting about Perle's talk, however, wasn't raking over old history about Iraq, but assessing relations between Israel and Iran now that Benjamin Netanyhu, who has always been close to Washington neocons, looks set to become prime minister with the aid of Avigdor Lieberman. Perle argued that if a bombing raid were to take place on Iranian facilities, it wouldn't need to be a massive attack that included the leadership of Iran. Instead, it could be a limited one. He didn't say it, but it sounded like the sort of thing that Israel could carry out by itself.
In 1996, the neocons originally drafted a policy paper called "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" that recommended that Israel upend the Middle East by abandoning the Oslo Accords and to create proxy armies to destabilize Israel's enemies. This document can be seen as the foundation stone for the unilateralist Bush administration foreign policy that emerged after September 11. With Netanyahu back in the saddle, a new avenue of influence for the neocons may well open up.

Comments

[DasBoot]

08:54 PM on 02/20/2009

"What, me?" Richard Perle

Isn't it amazing that this man spent the last 35 years in D.C., and yet claims that he has no influence, does not take part in decision-making, and doesn't read documents that bear his signature?

People like Perle are like the speculators who go into a country, create a bubble, and then leave the wreckage behind and move on to their next target. That why Naomi Klein calls it Disaster Capitalism.

[Infokronea]

05:18 PM on 02/20/2009

Excellent posting. If I may, I'd like to suggest the following for follow-up: Next time you get the chance, ask Perle about DFI (now Detica/BAE) and Barry Blechman. Ask Perle about why the Defense Policy Board took it upon themselves to sideline the legitimate intelligence community in favor of contractors with robust ties to the Bush Administration. Ask him why the intel related to Iran was altered at the same time the data that led us to war with Iraq was altered. Ask him how much money he and his friends (domestic and foreign) made as a direct result of these (and other) alterations.

Shame on you Dicky Perle! Shame on you!

[mommadona]

02:08 AM on 02/21/2009

Sweet.

Got any more?

[realpolitic]

03:01 AM on 02/20/2009

The neocons are so predictable. Hardly any of them have military experience. They want geo-political experimentation on a grand scale with their ideas of regime change here and there - only they do not seem do know what comes after the regime change. They take absolute no responsibility for their massive blunders and even lie about their activities, as Perle did about what Doug Feith was doing in the White House. Then they go on to the next international crisis and serve to create a castastrophe.

[MajorKong]

07:01 PM on 02/19/2009

Perle is spring-loaded to the "bombing raid" position.

I'd love to know when comes across a foreign policy problem that can't be solved by bombing somebody.