Recently, sixteen American GIs were killed in the Iraqi War in one week! (1) This brought the total U.S. fatalities to 2519. This is the same conflict which was recklessly launched in March, 2003, by the Bush-Cheney Gang based on lies. (2) The chief architect of the war, Paul Wolfowitz, a Neocon, then a Deputy Secretary of Defense, now sits in a cushy office in Washington, D.C., bringing down a six-figure salary, as the President of the World Bank. (3) Meanwhile, another pro-Iraqi War ideologue, Richard Perle, is criticizing the Bush-Cheney Gang for not being militant enough about Iran to suit his bloodthirsty tastes. And, he’s doing it, too, from the pages of the Washington Post! (4)

As a result of the U.S. decision on May 31, 2006, to join talks on Iran’s nuclear program with European countries, Perle went ballistic. The War Hawk, who has never heard a shot fired in anger, wrote: “How is it that Bush, who vowed that on his watch ‘the worst weapons will not fall into the worst hands,’ has chosen to beat such an ignominious retreat?” He specifically targeted Condi Rice’s move to the State Department for the lack of aggressiveness. He labeled the State Department, “a diplomatic establishment that is driven to accommodate its allies even when such allies counsel the appeasement of our adversaries...It’s not clear,” the flaming Neocon added, “whether Bush recognizes the perils of the course he has been persuaded to take.”(4) Question: How many more Americans have to die to satisfy Perle’s lust for death and mayhem?

My camera caught up with Perle, in Washington, D.C., on June 22, 2006. It was in front of the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on Constitution Avenue, just after a memorial service for another War Hawk, Philip Merrill Levine, a/k/a “Phil Merrill.” (5) He was a media mogul, who supposedly committed suicide by blowing his brains out with a shotgun blast while sailing solo on his boat on the Chesapeake Bay. (There are some things about that story, which don’t ring true, but I will leave that matter to the investigative reporters.) The smirking Perle was standing at the curbside waiting for a valet service to deliver his car. He was feeding his face with a handful of cookies, while being surrounded by cronies, who repeatedly jawed away at him and also patted him on the back. I couldn’t help thinking of the injustice of the scene. Here was one of the main principals, who, going back to his co-authorship of “The Clean Break” document, zealously pushed to get the U.S. into the Iraqi War, enjoying the limelight, (and a mouthful of cookies to boot), while so many of our finest sons and daughters continue to come back from Iraq in body bags and/or suffering from serious war-related injuries. Only miles from where he was standing is located fabled Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where many of the returning Iraqi Vets are brought for treatment. I will bet that windbag Perle has never visited that institution to comfort those troops and/or attended a funeral or memorial service for any U.S. soldier killed in the Iraqi War.

V.P. Dick Cheney, a close confidant of the wheeler-dealer publisher, was also at the memorial service. Cheney’s influence had helped Merrill secure a number of federal sinecures, including a spot, back in the 90s, on the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board, sitting along side of who else? Perle! Cheney had so much security coverage around him at the memorial service-officers with machine guns-that it reminded me of a movie scene where the demented Hannibal Lecter was transported, under tight guard, to his prison cell. U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), also made an appearance at the Merrill affair. What a phony Liberal she is! She’s part and parcel of the War Party. Although, Mikulski is on record opposing the Iraqi conflict, she has consistently voted to fund it. This makes her an accomplice of the Bush-Cheney Gang. As of this date, 40 Marylanders have died in the Iraqi War. (6) I can’t understand why the people of Maryland don’t boo her?

Colin Powell was at the Merrill gig, too. When my camera checked out the ex-U.S. Secretary of State, he looked much older than when he was in office jetting around the globe making the world safe for the predatory Plutocrats to exploit. The lines on his forehead are deeper. Maybe, his exaggerations, especially the ones he manufactured at the UN on Feb. 5, 2003, as a prelude to the Iraqi War, have finally caught up with him? I think, unlike Perle, Colin Powell does have a conscience. Nevertheless, the Iraqis’ death toll from the war may be at 300,000. (7) The cost to U.S. taxpayers for the illegal conflict stands now at $292 billion.

Perle continued with his rant in the Washington Post: “The president knows that the Iranians are undermining us in Iraq. He knows that the mullahs are working to sink any prospect of peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, backing Hamas and its goal of wiping Israel off the map. He knows that Iran has concealed and lied about its nuclear weapons program.” (4) I had to wonder who is this “us” Perle is talking about? How many of his kids are fighting in Iraq? How many Israelis are fighting there by the side of the U.S.? Perle also failed to say everything about Israel’s nukes. It has the sixth largest stockpile in the world!

More on Perle’s nasty spiel. He accused President George Bush of cowardice. He said, “Bush blinked” and authorized the European coalition (EU-3) “to approach Tehran with proposals to reward the mullahs if they promised to end their nuclear weapons program...The mullahs don’t blink--they glare...I know it is not to late for us, not to give substance to Bush’s words, not to late to redeem our honor.” (4) I had to wonder if Perle cleared this personal attack on Bush, with Cheney? Rumsfeld? And, who is he to talk about redeeming “honor?” He doesn't’ have any! (8)

Finally, there wasn’t a word in Perle’s Washington Post tirade about how disastrous the war in Iraq has been for our national interest. Neither did he mention the casualties or the cost to our treasury or how many more enemies that it has created for the U.S. in the Islamic World. The reason the Inspector Closeau of geopolitical strategists avoided those subjects is because he doesn’t give a damn about them. He’s an Israel Firster, who really only cares about the present state of Israel. (9) Few will forget Perle’s interview on PBS’s “Wide Angle,” on the topic of invading Iraq, on July 11, 2002, when he boasted, “If we just wage a total war...our children will sing great songs about us.” Well, I can’t speak for his children, but I’m sure they are many children who lost a father or mother in Iraq, who are cursing, not praising, Perle’s name. It’s interesting to note, also, that the Washington Post would give valuable Op Ed space to Perle with respect to his pushing such a hard line on Iran, when his endorsement of a preemptive U.S. attack on Iraq has proven so harmful to the Iraqi people, America, the Middle East and world stability. I think that speaks volumes, too, about just how low the once-mighty newspaper in our nation’s capital has fallen.

Notes:

1. www.thestate.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14895484.htm
2. www.afterdowningstreet.org/
3. www.newyorker.com/fact/content/
4. “Why Did Bush Blink on Iran?” (Ask Condi), June 25, 2006.
5. rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1300
6. icasualties.org/oif/Statecity.aspx
7. www.antiwar.com/jamail/
8. batr.net/neoconwatch/ and www.irmep.org/Defaults.asp and www.wrmea.com/archives/Jan_Feb_2004/0401009.htm
9. ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-011/%24File/rwp_06_011_walt.pdf

© William Hughes 2006.

William Hughes is the author of “Saying ‘No’ to the War Party” (IUniverse, Inc.). He can be reached at liamhughes-AT-comcast.net.