In 1998, the U.S. neocon brain trust pushed the "clean break" plan another step forward with the creation of the Project for the New American Century, which urged President Bill Clinton to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
However, Clinton would only go so far, maintaining a harsh embargo on Iraq and enforcing a "no-fly zone" which involved U.S. aircraft conducting periodic bombing raids. Still, with Clinton or his heir apparent, Al Gore, in the White House, a full-scale invasion of Iraq appeared out of the question.
The first key political obstacle was removed when the neocons helped engineer George W. Bush's ascension to the presidency in Election 2000. However, the path was not fully cleared until al-Qaeda terrorists attacked New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, creating a political climate across America for war and revenge.
In March 2003, surrounded by neocon advisers, Bush ordered an unprovoked invasion of Iraq. Though the war had other motives besides Israeli security -- from Bush's personal animus toward Saddam Hussein to controlling Iraq's oil resources -- a principal goal of the neocons was the projection of American power deep into the Muslim world, to strike at enemy states beyond Israel's limited military reach.
Of course, the geopolitical motives were rarely mentioned publicly. Instead, the American people were fed falsehoods about Iraq's WMDs and Hussein's ties to al-Qaeda.
Neocon Failure
The neocon plan might have worked, except that the violent resistance in Iraq to the U.S. occupation soon made it clear that the neocons' grander plan of extending "regime change" to Syria and Iran had to be put on hold.
With the bloody Iraq War eroding George W. Bush's political support by mid-decade and the rise of Barack Obama in 2008, the neocons found themselves shunted out of government power centers but not out of Washington's opinion circles. The neocons also retained allies in the State Department and the U.S. military.
But the neocons needed to buy time as the Democrats gained control of the White House and Congress in 2009. So the savvy neocons conducted what amounted to a delaying action as they worked to dirty up and weaken Obama.
And the young president fell into their trap. To show his commitment to bipartisanship, Obama retained key figures from Bush's national security team, including Defense Secretary Gates and Central Command chief, Gen. David Petraeus, both neocon favorites. Obama also appointed a neocon-lite Democrat, Hillary Clinton, to be Secretary of State.
Within months, Obama found himself hemmed in by these advisers as they sought to push him toward a major escalation in the Afghan War. They did so by limiting his war options on the inside, while the neocons on the outside built elite political support for the extra troops.
In late 2009, Obama finally gave in to the Pentagon demands, but he thought he had extracted an agreement for a withdrawal beginning in July 2011. However, once he agreed to the extra troops, he found himself under neocon criticism for any actual plan to withdraw them.
Meanwhile, the Afghan War escalation alienated Obama from his liberal "base." Many disillusioned progressives sat out the 2010 congressional elections, which saw the Republicans regain control of the House and strengthen their hand in the Senate.
Now, as Obama's reelection prospects decline -- amid a struggling economy, continued Republican obstructionism and mounting criticism of his leadership skills -- the neocons can see the end of the four-year tunnel.
All the neocons have to do is continue harassing Obama for another 16 months, using their influence in Official Washington to demean any foreign policy adjustments that might win him back favor with his liberal "base."
Already, the talking points are in play if the President goes in that direction: Obama doesn't believe in "American exceptionalism"; Obama is a "declinist": Obama "apologizes" for America; he is "weak" on American power. The neocons might as well trot out Jeane Kirkpatrick's old line and accuse Obama of wanting to "blame America first."
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