Douglas Feith is now a very senior Pentagon official: the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. Here is what he had to say in favour of invading Iraq in 1996. Note all the weird mystical stuff about “national exhaustion”; the urge to make Israel less dependent on foreign aid, and — which I find a little odd in American citizens — the exhortations that it stop being bossed about by America.
Here is what he told a congressional committee last week about America’s plans for governing Iraq.
Ask yourself whether the Netanyahu/Feith/Perle strategy laid out in 1996 has in fact made Israel richer, more secure, and more respected. Now figure out the chances of the Bush/Feith/Perle strategy in Iraq. You need not show your workings, but at some stage, you should include the most striking phrase in the whole 1996 document: “Israel has a chance to forge a new relationship with the Palestinians”.