Why I Oppose Imperialism -- or -- Rome Wasn't Built in an Election

[Octafish]

8. Ignorance is a matter of life and death. Take the Vulcans, please.

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." -- Plato



That idea helps us understand the rise of the Vulcans.

Rise of the Vulcans

The title of this book sounds like something from Star Trek, but in fact it's an insider political term. The "Vulcans" are a group of neoconservative Republicans who rose to power under Reagan and Bush Sr., and heavily populated George W. Bush's cabinet. The term comes from a statue of the god Vulcan which was displayed prominently in Condi Rice's home town, where the group met early on.

The Vulcans comprised six members: Condi Rice, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell, all of whom have excerpts on our website; plus Richard Armitage and Paul Wolfowitz, who don't have excerpts because they never rose to Cabinet rank. Pres. George W. Bush is excluded from the Vulcan list (but not from the book!) because, according to the author, "Bush himself had not worked directly on foreign policy before 2001… when it came to foreign policy, George W. Bush had no past. He was not, in that sense, a Vulcan." (pp. xvii-xviii). Vulcans, by this definition, had a long development from within the Cold War context to an evolving post-Cold War view.

The purpose of this book is to examine the history and the world views of the six Vulcans (p. xv), and how it affected US foreign policy. Those world views include:

* Pre-emptive war (which Bush cited as the rationale for invading Iraq in 2002)

* Overwhelming force (which became known as "The Powell Doctrine&quot

* Maintaining the US as the world's sole superpower (which became known negatively as "The World's Policeman&quot

* The Global War on Terror as an ongoing rationale for numerous invasions, not just Iraq and Afghanistan.

Powell famously disagreed with Rumsfeld on that last item, recommending against numerous military actions where Rumsfeld recommended in favor. Condi Rice eventually sided with Rumsfeld and eventually replaced Powell as Secretary of State -- in large part because of the disagreement on Vulcan ideology.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in Bush's underlying rationale for the Iraq War. Bush himself did not form nor articulate his own vision -- it was the Vulcan vision that Bush implemented.

-- Jesse Gordon, editor-in-chief, OnTheIssues.org, [e-mail], Nov. 2011

http://www.ontheissues.org/Rise_Vulcans.htm