Worldmaking

by David Milne

    90. Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown. Also see Graham, By His Own Rules.

    91. Herring, From Colony to Superpower, 909.

    92. George F. Kennan, December 16, 1990, KD, 616.

    93. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 192.

    94. Baker, Politics and Diplomacy, 194.

    95. Robert Gates, “The Gulf War: Oral History,” Frontline, PBS, January 9, 1996, www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/oral/gates/1.html.

    96. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 192.

    97. Ibid., 193.

    98. Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 489.

    99. Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 414.

  100. John Lewis Gaddis, “Grand Strategies in the Cold War,” in Leffler and Westad, The Cambridge History of the Cold War, 2:43.

  101. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 198.

  102. Immerman, Empire for Liberty, 217. For the various drafts of the DPG, see the website of the National Security Archive at George Washington University: www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb245/index.htm.

  103. Patrick Tyler, “U.S. Strategy Plan Calls for Insuring No Rivals Develop,” The New York Times, March 8, 2008.

  104. Packer, The Assassins’ Gate, 21.

  105. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 203.

  106. Chollet and Goldgeier, America Between the Wars, 45.

  107. Memorandum from Paul Wolfowitz to Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, May 5, 1992, www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb245/doc14.pdf.

  108. Immerman, Empire for Liberty, 218.

  109. Paul Wolfowitz, “Shaping the Future: Planning at the Pentagon,” in Leffler and Legro, In Uncertain Times, 45–46.

  110. Thompson, The Hawk and the Dove, 311.

  111. Gaddis, George F. Kennan, 680.

  112. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 219.

  113. Preble, The Power Problem, 31, 33.

  114. Paul Wolfowitz, “Clinton’s Bay of Pigs,” The Wall Street Journal, September 27, 1996, in Chollet and Goldgeiger, America Between the Wars, 188.

  115. Solomon, Paul D. Wolfowitz, 69.

  116. See Bowden, Black Hawk Down.

  117. George F. Kennan, December 9, 1992, KD, 630–31.

  118. See Dallaire, Shake Hands with the Devil.

  119. Beinart, The Icarus Syndrome, 274–75.

  120. Paul Wolfowitz, “The United States and Iraq,” in Calabrese, The Future of Iraq, 111.

  121. Zalmay Khalilzad and Paul Wolfowitz, “Overthrow Him,” The Weekly Standard, December 1, 1997, 14, in Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 236.

  122. https://web.archive.org/web/20130112235337/http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm.

  123. https://web.archive.org/web/20130112203258/http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm.

  124. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 24.

  125. Condoleezza Rice and Philip D. Zelikow, Germany Reunified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft.

  126. Velasco, Neoconservatives in U.S. Foreign Policy, 156.

  127. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 259.

  128. Velasco, Neoconservatives in U.S. Foreign Policy, 156.

  129. Heilbrunn, They Knew They Were Right, 230.

  130. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 256.

  131. Ibid., 263.

  132. Powell, My American Journey, 526.

  133. DeYoung, Soldier, 301.

  134. Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 292.

  135. Immerman, Empire for Liberty, 223.

  136. Gordon and Trainor, Cobra II, 14–15.

  137. Bacevich, The Limits of Power, 144. For a defense of his service to the Bush administration, see Feith, War and Decision.

  138. DeYoung, Soldier, 305.

  139. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 280.

  140. “Bush and Putin: Best of Friends,” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1392791.stm.

  141. “No Defense,” The Weekly Standard, July 23, 2001, 11. See also Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 280–90.

  142. Gordon and Trainor, Cobra II, 14.

  143. Clarke, Against All Enemies, 231–32.

  144. Paul Wolfowitz interview with Sam Tanenhaus of Vanity Fair.

  145. The 9/11 Commission Report, 8–9.

  146. Ibid., 311.

  147. Solomon, Paul D. Wolfowitz, 74.

  148. Wolfowitz interview with Tanenhaus.

  149. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-09-06-poll-iraq_x.htm.

  150. www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/international/middleeast/26FTE_NOTE.html.

  151. Clarke, Against All Enemies, 30–32.

  152. Woodward, Plan of Attack, 26.

  153. Sam Tanenhaus, “Bush’s Brain Trust,” Vanity Fair, July 2003, 169.

  154. Solomon, Paul D. Wolfowitz, 78.

  155. Woodward, Bush at War, 99.

  156. Rice, No Higher Honor, 189.

  157. Mearsheimer and Walt, The Israel Lobby, 246.

  158. Woodward, Bush at War, 99.

  159. Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 359.

  160. Solomon, Paul D. Wolfowitz, 81.

  161. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 300–301.

  162. George F. Kennan, diary entry, November 21, 2001, KD, 677.

  163. Rashid, Descent into Chaos, 80.

  164. Transcript of Paul Wolfowitz interview with James Dao and Eric Schmitt of The New York Times, January 7, 2002, www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=2039.

  165. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 308.

  166. Peter Bergen, “The Battle for Tora Bora,” The New Republic, December 22, 2009, www.newrepublic.com/article/the-battle-tora-bora.

  167. Zakheim, A Vulcan’s Tale, 263.

  168. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 308–309.

  169. Solomon, Paul D. Wolfowitz, 82–83.

  170. See Joost R. Hiltermann, A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

  171. George F. Kennan, diary entry, July 13, 2002, KD, 679.

  172. Colodny and Schactman, The Forty Years War, 388.

  173. Solomon, Paul D. Wolfowitz, 23.

  174. Pillar, Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy, 46.

  175. Paul Wolfowitz, interview with Sam Tanenhaus, Vanity Fair, May 9, 2003.

  176. Velasco, Neoconservatives in U.S. Foreign Policy, 206.

  177. Bacevich, The Limits of Power, 117.

  178. Solomon, Paul D. Wolfowitz, 7.

  179. Heilbrunn, They Knew They Were Right, 24.

  180. Bill Keller, “The Sunshine Warrior,” The New York Times, September 22, 2002, www.nytimes.com/2002/09/22/magazine/the-sunshine-warrior.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.

  181. Zakheim, A Vulcan’s Tale, 186.

  182. Max Boot, “Think Again: Neocons,” Foreign Policy, January 1, 2004, www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2004/01/01/think_again_neocons.

  183. Albert Eisele, “George Kennan Speaks Out About Iraq,” The Hill, September 26, 2002, http://hnn.us/articles/997.html.

  184. George F. Kennan, diary entry, September 15, 2002, KD, 679.

  185. Mark Danner, Stripping Bare the Body, 470.

  186. See Tony Judt, “Bush’s Useful Idiots,” London Review of Books, September 21, 2006, www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n18/tony-judt/bushs-useful-idiots.

  187. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 337.

  188. DeYoung, Soldier, 399.

  189. Solomon, Paul D. Wolfowitz, 40.

  190. www.state.gov/documents/organization/63562.pdf.

  191. Gaddis, Surprise, Security and the American Experience.

  192. Traub, The Freedom Agenda, 118.

  193. Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 454.

  194. DeYoung, Soldier, 461.

  195. Glain, State vs. Defense, 392.

  196. Rice, No Higher Honor, 210.

  197. Glain, State vs. Defense, 392.

  198. http://costsofwar.org. For an earlier estimate, see Stiglitz and Bilmes, The Three Trillion Dollar War.

  199. Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, 252, 263–64.

  200. Solomon,
Paul D. Wolfowitz, 122.

  201. Gellman, Angler, 231.

  202. Rice, No Higher Honor, 208.

  203. Bobbitt, Terror and Consent, 147–48.

  204. Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 365.

  205. “Rumsfeld Blames Iraq Problems on ‘Pockets of Dead Enders,’” Associated Press, June 18, 2003, in John Ehrenberg, J. Patrice McSherry, José Ramón Sánchez, and Caroleen Marji Sayej, eds., The Iraq Papers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 189.

  206. Dodge, Iraq.

  207. http://costsofwar.org.

  208. Solomon, Paul D. Wolfowitz, 112.

  209. See Bush, Decision Points, 270.

  210. www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2013/iraq#.vijxsyczzzs.

  211. www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/18/10_years_on_paul_wolfowitz_admits_us_bungled_in_iraq_117492.html.

  212. Andrew J. Bacevich, “A Letter to Paul Wolfowitz, Occasioned by the Tenth Anniversary of the Iraq War,” Harper’s Magazine, March 2013, harpers.org/archive/2013/03/a-letter-to-paul-wolfowitz/.

  213. Wolfowitz: “We ‘Won’ the Iraq War,” The Hill, August 6, 2014, http://thehill.com/policy/defense/214453-wolfowitz-we-won-the-iraq-war.

  9. Barack Obama and the Pragmatic Renewal

      1. Remnick, The Bridge, 346.

      2. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-06-08/news/1991159083_1_persian-gulf-gulf-war-troops-home.

      3. A partial transcript of Obama’s speech against the war (and full audio) is available at www.npr.org/templates/story.php?storyid=99591469.

      4. William James, Pragmatism, edited and introduced by Bruce Kuklick (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1981), 29.

      5. Kloppenberg, Reading Obama, xiii.

      6. Maraniss, Barack Obama, 165.

      7. Ibid., 350.

      8. Ibid., 386–87.

      9. Remnick, The Bridge, 111.

    10. Maraniss, Barack Obama, 452.

    11. Obama, Dreams from My Father, 121–22.

    12. Maraniss, Barack Obama; Remnick, The Bridge, 113.

    13. Obama, Dreams from My Father, 86.

    14. Kloppenberg, Reading Obama, 56–57.

    15. Remnick, The Bridge, 398–99.

    16. Ibid., p. 400.

    17. Ryan Lizza, “The Consequentialist,” The New Yorker, May 2, 2011, www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/02/110502fa_fact_lizza.

    18. Mann, Obamians, 87.

    19. Indyk, Lieberthal, and O’Hanlon, Bending History, 6.

    20. “Barack Obama, Neocon,” The Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2007, A8.

    21. Ken Gude, “John McCain Versus Osama bin Laden,” The Guardian, August 1, 2008, www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/01/johnmccain.usforeignpolicy.

    22. Lizza, “The Consequentialist.”

    23. David Brooks, “Obama, Gospel and Verse,” The New York Times, April 26, 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/opinion/26brooks.html.

    24. Preston, Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith, 611.

    25. Kloppenberg, Reading Obama, 121.

    26. Jo Becker and Scott Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will,” The New York Times, May 29, 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in-war-on-al-qaeda.html?pagewanted=2&hp.

    27. Mann, Obamians, 92.

    28. Lindsay, “George W. Bush,” 771.

    29. Elisabeth Bumiller, “Palin Will Meet with Kissinger and Foreign Leaders,” The New York Times, September 21, 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/us/politics/22veep.html.

    30. “Powell: Support for Obama Doesn’t Mean Iraq War Wrong,” CNN, www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/19/powell.transcript/.

    31. Gurman, The Dissent Papers, 203–204. See also Shapiro, Containment.

    32. The Princeton Project’s website is www.princeton.edu/~ppns/. See also Ikenberry et al., The Crisis of American Foreign Policy.

    33. Woodward, Obama’s Wars, 290.

    34. Indyk, Lieberthal, and O’Hanlon, Bending History, 8.

    35. Mann, Obamians, 117.

    36. Woodward, Obama’s Wars, 3, 11.

    37. See press release, “Special Task Force on Interrogation and Transfer Policies Issues Its Recommendations to the President,” www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/August/09-ag-835.html, and David Johnston, “U.S. Says Rendition to Continue, but with More Oversight,” The New York Times, August 24, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/us/politics/25rendition.html.

    38. Lindsay, “George W. Bush,” 774.

    39. Sanger, Confront and Conceal, 277.

    40. George Packer, “Rights and Wrongs,” The New Yorker, May 17, 2010, www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/05/17/100517taco_talk_packer.

    41. James Taranto, “The bin Laden Raid and the ‘Virtues of Boldness,’” The Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2011.

    42. Mann, Obamians, 147.

    43. Ibid., 161.

    44. Taranto, “The bin Laden Raid.”

    45. www.politicususa.com/2009/06/18/kissinger-obama-iran.html.

    46. www.nobelprize.org.

    47. Steven Erlanger and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Surprise Nobel for Obama Stirs Praise and Doubts,” The New York Times, October 9, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html.

    48. Garance Franke-Ruta, “Reaction: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize,” The Washington Post, October 9, 2009, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/10/09/reaction_obama_wins_nobel_peac.html.

    49. www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-acceptance-nobel-peace-prize.

    50. Sanger, Confront and Conceal, 16.

    51. Mann, Obamians, 132–33.

    52. Woodward, Obama’s Wars, 102–103, 332–33.

    53. Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker, “General Calls for More U.S. Troops to Avoid Afghan Failure,” The New York Times, September 20, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/world/asia/21afghan.html.

    54. Woodward, Obama’s Wars, 175.

    55. www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-address-nation-way-forward-afghanistan-and-pakistan.

    56. Mann, Obamians, 139–40.

    57. www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-address-nation-way-forward-afghanistan-and-pakistan.

    58. Mann, Obamians, 223.

    59. David E. Sanger, “Pursuing Ambitious Global Goals, but Strategy Is More,” The New York Times, January 20, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/us/politics/obamas-foreign-policy-goals-appear-more-modest.html?hp&pagewanted=print.

    60. Michael Hastings, “The Runaway General,” Rolling Stone, June 22, 2010, www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-runaway-general-20100622.

    61. Helene Cooper and David E. Sanger, “Obama Says Afghan Policy Won’t Change After Dismissal,” The New York Times, June 23, 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/us/politics/24mcchrystal.html?pagewanted=all.

    62. Anne E. Kornblut, “McChrystal Article Renews Attention to Split with Biden over Afghanistan,” The Washington Post, June 23, 2010, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/23/AR2010062301109.html.

    63. www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/06/22/remarks-president-way-forward-afghanistan.

    64. On drone warfare, see Mazzetti, The Way of the Knife. The negative, unintended effects of drone attacks are discussed in Ahmed, The Thistle and the Drone.

    65. Mark Mazzetti, Charlie Savage, and Scott Shane, “How a U.S. Citizen Came to Be in America’s Cross Hairs,” The New York Times, March 9, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/world/middleeast/anwar-al-awlaki-a-us-citizen-in-americas-cross-hairs.html?pagewanted=all.

    66. Mann, Obamians, 199.

    67. Sanger, Confront and Conceal, 246.

    68. Ibid., 245.

    69. Ibid., 25
5–57.

    70. “The End of the Perpetual War,” The New York Times, May 23, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/opinion/obama-vows-to-end-of-the-perpetual-war.html?pagewanted=all. For a full transcript of the speech, see http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-05-23/politics/39467399_1_war-and-peace-cold-war-civil-war.

    71. Mark Mazzetti and Declan Walsh, “Pakistan Says U.S. Drone Killed Taliban Leader,” The New York Times, May 29, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/world/asia/drone-strike-hits-near-pakistani-afghan-border.html?pagewanted=all.

    72. Mann, Obamians, 303, and Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper, “Detective Work on Courier Led to Breakthrough on Bin Laden,” The New York Times, May 2, 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/02reconstruct-capture-osama-bin-laden.html.

    73. Sanger, Confront and Conceal, 94.

    74. Mann, Obamians, 307.

    75. Taranto, “The bin Laden Raid.”

    76. Sanger, Confront and Conceal, 283–86.

    77. Mann, Obamians, 259–60.

    78. Sanger, Confront and Conceal, 316.

    79. Mann, Obamians, 261–62, 263.

    80. Sanger, Confront and Conceal, 297.

    81. Henry Kissinger interview with Channel 4 News, February 1, 2011, www.channel4.com/news/egypt-the-biggest-change-since-world-war-2.

    82. Taranto, “The bin Laden Raid.”

    83. Mann, Obamians, 281, 284.

    84. Ibid., 288.

    85. Dexter Filkins, “What Should Obama Do About Syria?” The New Yorker, May 13, 2013, www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/05/13/130513fa_fact_filkins.

    86. Ethan Bronner and David E. Sanger, “Arab League Endorses No-Fly Zone over Libya,” The New York Times, March 12, 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/middleeast/13libya.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.

    87. Sanger, Confront and Conceal, 345.

    88. Indyk, Lieberthal, and O’Hanlon, Bending History, 163.

    89. Kori Schake, “The U.S. Sits One Out,” ForeignPolicy.com, March 18, 2011, http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/18/the_us_sits_one_out.

    90. Lizza, “The Consequentialist.”

    91. Indyk, Lieberthal, and O’Hanlon, Bending History, 166.

    92. Interview with Mitt Romney, CNN, March 26, 2012, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1203/26/sitroom.01.html.

    93. Milne, “Pragmatism or What?,” 936.

    94. “CNN Poll, George W. Bush Only Living ex-President Under 50%,” http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/07/cnn-poll-george-w-bush-only-living-ex-president-under-50/.