Why the Washington Power Elite Fears Trump

by Brad Benson

The recent “Open Letter”, signed by a host of self-proclaimed US “Foreign Policy Experts”, demonstrates the real reason why the Washington Power Elite is virtually apoplectic over fear of a Trump Presidency. Trump threatens to reverse many of the aggressive policies, which have been a source of fun and profit for the Beltway Establishment almost since 9/11!
Just last year, these “experts” and their media mouthpieces were anticipating an election matchup between Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. This would have ensured a continuation of the murderous status quo across the Middle East and around the Globe, regardless of the election’s outcome. Instead, a “wildcard” named Trump has bucked the Republican Party, thumped his competition and now threatens to throw a wrench into the entire war machine.
Trump speaks of working with Vladimir Putin; pledges “neutrality” in regard to Israel; and promises to bring an end to our “stupid wars”. This poses a direct challenge to the power, incomes and, in some case, the entire raison d’etre of the letter’s signatories.
That Trump might usher in a new era of détente with Russia is particularly scary, since Peace Prize President Obama has quietly approved a major new nuclear rearmament program. This 30-year, $1 Trillion Nuclear Program is already well underway and is expected to rain money in both Washington and Israel for many years to come!
Still, none of this can be justified without a “New Cold War” in which Vladimir Putin is seen as the “new Hitler”, while the evil specter of the Russian Bear is once again raised to terrorize the American People into supporting nuclear rearmament for “defense”.
Much of the groundwork for this was established when Hillary Clinton’s State Department overthrew the government of The Ukraine, forcing Putin to take steps to protect his warm water naval base in the Crimea and opening the door for the West to scream “Russian Aggression!”. However, a simple handshake between Trump and Putin could put an end to the gravy train in a New York minute.
Similarly, Trump’s pronouncements on “neutrality” and “stupid wars” threaten long accepted norms of DC Beltway Groupthink in regard to “Greater Israel” and have incited a separate group of “foreign policy experts”—namely those dual citizenship Israeli/Americans who have become embedded in the Beltway Establishment and tend to place the interests of Israel over those of the US.
In regard to the “open letter”, it is fair to state that a significant number of the 121 current signers are former associates or acolytes of the now defunct foreign policy “think tank” once known as “The Project for a New American Century” (PNAC), which had its roots in an earlier Washington based Israeli Think Tank, the “Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy”.
PNAC’s Year 2000 Policy Proposal entitled, “Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century”, now scrubbed from the Internet, is most remembered for its reference to “a new Pearl Harbor”, which some say presaged the 9/11 Attacks. However, the real significance of this document was that the signatories were proposing a more violent new American Empire, which would engage in radical resource seizures and “regime changes” around the globe, while ruthlessly pursuing “full spectrum dominance” over technology, energy, communications and outer space.
Ironically, the “Pearl Harbor” quote was actually a lament that their hegemonic plans might never be achieved over the objections of the American Public—absent “a major polarizing event such as a new Pearl Harbor”. How stunningly propitious that 9/11 would occur less than two years later, at a time when so many of the PNAC Signatories would by then be serving in the new Bush II Administration and thus be in a position to implement their toxic policies!
Now, after nearly 15 years of war, murder and mayhem, the foreign policy experts most responsible for the carnage have brought forth their minions to make the case that Trump’s Foreign Policies would be dangerous! Moreover, lacking all sense of irony, they make their case on a Website called “War on the Rocks”—evoking an image of ‘armchair generals’ enjoying a cold drink, while playing a truly deadly ‘Game of Risk’.
Also, notably missing are the names of the original signatories from the Year 2000 PNAC Policy Document, whose very presence would raise serious flags for most Americans. These include: Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, Bill Kristol, Eliot Abrams and John “the Walrus” Bolton.
That being said, a quick glance at the signers reveals that some don’t enjoy the anonymity that they might have imagined! They are listed alphabetically for handy reference so, beginning with the first name on the list, let’s look at a few examples.
Oh! There’s Kenneth Adelman, a former member of Donald Rumsfeld’s Defense Policy Board, and a strong advocate for the aggressive war against Sadam Hussein’s Iraq. Right off the bat with the first name on the list, we’ve scored a genuine War Criminal!
Skimming down through the list, we also find:

• Max Boot who once described his concept of foreign policy as “American might to promote American ideals.”
• Michael Chertoff, the former Bush Homeland Security Secretary who now heads ‘The Chertoff Group’, which boasts former NSA/CIA snoop, torturer and war criminal, General Michael Hayden, as one of its associates.
• ‘Tom’ Donnelly, a.k.a. ‘Thomas’ Donnelly, who bills himself as a “writer”, is a long time war hawk at the American Enterprise Institute and is a current “Director of Strategic Communications” for mega defense contractor Lockheed Martin.
• Robert Kagan is a long time war hawk and was a founding member of PNAC. He authored portions of the original 2000 Policy Document and is one of the few original signatories whose name reappears in this “open letter”. Kagan’s wife, Victoria Nuland, is the State Department Official who directed the 2013 Coup d’état in the Ukraine and thus helped to create the New Cold War with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
• Philip I. Levy is a former member of Condoleeza Rice’s Policy Planning Staff and current fellow at ‘The Chicago Council of Global Affairs’.
• Michael B. Mukasey is a former Bush Attorney General who replaced the disgraced Alberto Gonzalez and would not renounce torture during his Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing. He was approved over the strong objections of key Democrats, including Bernie Sanders, and confirmed by a vote of the full Senate. He’s now a retired Federal Judge.
• John Noonan’s Wikipedia resume’ states, “After publishing an article on Russia’s growing sphere of influence at The Weekly Standard, he was accused of openly advocating for a renewed state of Cold War between Washington and Moscow”.
• Michael Rubin is a former Defense Department Official who served in the ‘Coalition Provisional Authority’ during the postwar occupation of Iraq. His Wikipedia Resume’ seems to be rather sparse for someone who purports to be a foreign policy expert, but maybe he has good reason to want to cover up that history!
• Francis I. Townsend is a former Homeland Security Advisor to George W. Bush.
• Philip Zelikow was the ‘Executive Director’ at the 9/11 Commission, whom some have called an “avowed Zionist” and others have called “America’s Cover-up Man”.
• Robert B. Zoellick is a former Bush Deputy Secretary of State, who has served as a managing Director of Goldman Sachs and also as the 11th President of the World Bank.

Few, if any, of these war hawks, bankers, arms dealers, torturers, armchair warriors and professional propagandists are qualified to claim the mantle of foreign policy “expert”—in any respect. In addition to their consistent adherence to conquest, war, pestilence and death in nearly every aspect of their foreign policies, none of these signers has the moral authority to ever proclaim of Donald Trump:

His vision of American influence and power in the world is wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle.”

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