A reader draws my attention to this report, titled Rebuilding America’s Defenses (.pdf format), from a thinktank called the Project for a New American Century. I haven’t looked through the whole thing yet, but here are a couple of sobering excerpts:
ESTABLISH FOUR CORE MISSIONS for U.S. military forces:
defend the American homeland;
fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars;
perform the “constabulary” duties associated with shaping the security
environment in critical regions;
transform U.S. forces to exploit the “revolution in military affairs”
* * *
… the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event “like a new Pearl Harbor.”
* * *
Indeed, the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Emphasis added.
Did I mention that this was written in September of 2000? Or that signatories to the original PNAC Statement of Principles included Elliott Abrams, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Jeb Bush and Paul Wolfowitz?
I’m going out to buy some Reynolds Wrap now.
Update: my pal Vance Lemkuhl emails to point out that this was a front page story at his paper, the Philadelphia Daily News, on Monday.