The George W. Bush Memoir: Now Here's a Book I Might Consider Burning

by Keith Johnson
Revolt of the Plebs
Sep. 15, 2010

Admirers of George W. Bush will soon have an opportunity to get inside the head of their dearly beloved neo-conservative icon. His much-hyped memoir, 'Decision Points' is due out in bookstores on November 9th.

We're told that 'The Decider' has, "spent almost every day" writing what his publishing house calls, "a strikingly personal and candid account revealing how and why he made the defining decisions in his consequential presidency and personal life."

Oh--the romantic visions this must conjure up in the minds of so many adoring fans. Can't you just imagine all of those sleepless nights Ol'Dubyah must have spent burning the midnight oil? I can just see him now...instructing his house staff that, "I must not be disturbed" before locking the doors to his study and sinking into a big leather chair. There he sits, alone and reflective, preferring to log his thoughts on paper instead of using a computer because--after all--he's an old fashioned kind of guy. Occasionally he will rise from his desk to step out onto the terrace. There...he breathes in the cool night air and gazes up at the stars. He asks the good Lord to help him find the strength to confront his demons, and the courage to share with his fellow countrymen just how often he struggled with doubts before being forced to make tough and painful decisions.

Blah...blah...blah...

Well, if entertaining that fantasy is what helps you get through the book--more power to ya.' However, I prefer to entertain a more likely scenario. Mine has a staff of ghostwriters chasing Ol'Dubyah around the golf course in a vain attempt to pin him down long enough to do some fact checking. Can't you just see him...shooting rubber bands at their head as he makes off-color remarks about how poorly they fit into their clothes? Yeah, that's more Ol'Dubyah's style.

But, according to a press release by Crown Publishers, we're promised a more demure and accessible Bush, one who will be honest and direct in his writing as he reveals "intimate" and "unprecedented" details of his personal life. We'll learn what went into his decision to quit drinking, how he decided to give his life over to God (whatever God that might be), and about his relationship with members of his family. Oh, how sickeningly sweet.

The forthcoming book also promises to bring "readers inside the Texas Governor's Mansion on the night of the hotly contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11 in the gripping hours after America's most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor; inside the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq; and behind the Oval Office desk for his historic and controversial decisions on the financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, Afghanistan, Iran, and other issues that have shaped the first decade of the 21st century.

Wow, that sounds like some ride, which is exactly what readers will be taken for if they choose to plop down $35 (plus tax) for this steaming loaf of bovine excrement. I'm sure there are many who are waiting to do just that. This book will certainly find its way to the New York Times bestsellers list, and you're bound to find copies of this opus prominently displayed on the bookshelves of Burger King franchise owners; Wells Fargo branch managers; small town police chiefs, and all manner of suburban dwelling professionals who consider themselves to be upwardly mobile members of the elite.

However, there is one morsel of truth that can be found in the aforementioned teaser. These "issues" certainly "have shaped the first decade of the 21st century." But, come on, do they really expect me us believe that it was George W. Bush who made all of those "controversial decisions"? That will require some spin, especially in light of the fact that every move Bush made was in accordance with plans that were written out for him well in advance of his Presidency.

In 1997, an assorted cast of villains created a Washington based think tank called 'The Project for the New American Century' (PNAC). This group was--in large part--the brainchild of Paul Wolfowitz, who would later become the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense under Bush and the architect of his Iraq policy. Among some of the founding members--who would later be given key positions in the Bush administration--were Dick Cheney (future V.P.), Donald Rumsfeld (future Defense Secretary), and Richard Perle (future Defense Policy Board chairman). Other members would go on to become highly influential leaders of the neo-conservative movement--like William Kristol--famed conservative writer for the Weekly Standard, owned by Ruppert Murdoch, who also owns international media giant Fox News.

The goal of this group was to establish America's hegemony throughout the world and maintain global dominance through military force. The way they planned to carry this out was outlined in a white paper entitled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century.” In it, they identified four "Core Missions" for the United States military:

1.) Defend the American Homeland

2.) Fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theatre wars

3.) Perform the 'constabulary' duties associated with shaping the security environment in critical regions

4.) Transform U.S. forces to exploit the "revolution in military affairs"

All of these objectives had been in the planning stages for years, long before Bush Jr. came onto the scene. While he was still busy making failures out of every company he was involved with in the private sector, it was Cheney and his gang of criminals who were busy making the "controversial decisions" that W. would later take credit for.

As early as 1992, plans for military adventurism, into and beyond Iraq, were well underway. At that time, Cheney was President Bush Sr.'s Secretary of Defense. Following 'Operation Desert Storm,' Cheney collaborated with two of his top aides, Paul Wolfowitz and Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, in drafting up a post-cold war American defense strategy. They came up with a document entitled, 'Defense Planning Guidance.' It maintained that the U.S. must assert pre-emptive military supremacy to “discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role" and to safeguard “access to vital raw material, primarily Persian Gulf oil." To this end, it was essential that the U.S. maintain a permanent military presence in the Middle East and to "keep all peacekeeping and rebuilding missions within the power of American political leadership rather than that of the United Nations."

This would become the ideological blueprint for PNAC and the foreign policy objectives of a future administration they planned to control through an installed, puppet President.

This is where our boy George emerges onto the scene. Cheney needed someone he and his cohorts could trust and control. George's younger brother, Jeb, was already a key player in PNAC as a signatory to the “Rebuilding America’s Defenses" document. Jeb was considered far more intelligent than George, but lacked the political experience and public recognition that his older brother enjoyed.

Cheney put his full support behind W.'s presidential campaign and even headed his vice-presidential search committee. After reviewing the committee's findings, Bush concluded that Cheney was the man he wanted as his running mate. Go figure.

Everything the PNAC group had invested in, hinged on the victory of George W. Bush over Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential elections. George had to win by any means necessary. So it was up to his brother Jeb--a devout PNAC operative and then-Governor of Florida--to tip the scales in his favor by illegally removing 57,700 Florida voters from the rolls. And the rest--as they say--is history.

Once the PNAC President was installed, all that was needed was a 'catalyst' to put their plan into motion. A reference to this scheme was revealed in Section V of Rebuilding America's Defenses, entitled “Creating Tomorrow’s Dominant Force“, which includes the sentence: “Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event----like a new Pearl Harbor”

On September 11, 2001, they got their Pearl Harbor. The decision to invade Iraq and Afghanistan was not one that was pondered upon in the mind of the idiot Bush. This had been the plan all along. In 1998, fifteen PNAC members were signatories on a letter to then-President Clinton, urging him to "undertake military action" to eliminate "the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction." The PNAC NeoCons had been salivating over Iraq and Afghanistan for years, and seized upon the 9/11 events to move their plan forward.

So just keep these "points" in perspective as you sit down to read how the "Decider" "decided" all of those "decisions" that have "decisively" flushed this nation into a despotic death spiral.

Part II of this essay is on its way.

Keith Johnson runs the website Revolt Of The Plebs.