Wolfowitz power memo. Mohamed El Beih has dug out a fascinating early Wolfowitz memo which made me shudder. The memo extracts, which appear in Stern Opportunity (free subs) reveals a mind filled with naked power politics.

Mr W's 1992 memo Defense Planning Guidance, written while he was a strategist working for Dick Cheney, said "Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival".

It goes on ... "the U.S must show the leadership necessary to establish and protect a new order that holds the promise of convincing potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests. In non-defense areas, we must account sufficiently for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to discourage them from challenging our leadership or seeking to overturn the established political and economic order."

The paper floated the option of preemptive military action made no mention of collective or multilateral action, calling only for occasional fleeting American exploitation of ad-hoc coalitions.

El Beih's conclusion? "I would join international voices in arguing that such officials are not just unfit for international posts, they belong to The Hague".

Alex Wilks ~ April 14, 2005

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