Worldpress.org : Neocons and Liberals Together, Again

Liberal Hawks Ally With Project for the New American Century

The nice folks at PNAC are apparently feeling their oats. On the heels of the Bush administration's stunning successes in Iraq, the Project for a New American Century has issued another policy paper (in the form of a letter to congress) calling for an enlargement of the US military and increase in defense spending. All the better to build the American empire and secure the Pax Americana.

It's an interesting letter in many ways. It illustrates the original illogic of their overall plan of global dominance (and perhaps domination) without become a much more militarized society than we have been used to in the past. It hints at the possibility (probability?) of a draft, as recruiting numbers continue to fall. It emphasizes the stretching of resources that empire building naturally and necessarily implies.

Some excerpts from the letter/position paper:

The United States military is too small for the responsibilities we are asking it to assume....So we write to ask you and your colleagues in the legislative branch to take the steps necessary to increase substantially the size of the active duty Army and Marine Corps. While estimates vary about just how large an increase is required, and Congress will make its own determination as to size and structure, it is our judgment that we should aim for an increase in the active duty Army and Marine Corps, together, of at least 25,000 troops each year over the next several years....There is abundant evidence that the demands of the ongoing missions in the greater Middle East, along with our continuing defense and alliance commitments elsewhere in the world, are close to exhausting current U.S. ground forces....that "overuse" in Iraq and Afghanistan could be leading to a "broken force."....The administration has been reluctant to adapt to this new reality....The men and women of our military have performed magnificently over the last few years....Reserves were meant to be reserves, not regulars.

Among the "liberal hawks" who signed the letter: Martin Indyk, Ivo Daaldar, Will Marshall, Dennis Ross and James Steinberg.