People are looking at the last several years like they're the only years that ever existed. We hear Republicans point to Clinton but the history only goes back to '98. The timeline seems to be: Clinton/Lewinski, Clinton 'Saddam Baaaaad' resolution, 9-11, Iraq War... (that's enough for this entry)
But the Neo-Con/Chickenhawk/Warmonger histories go back further.
They're mostly members of the "B-Team". I hope most of you have heard about that - if not, read on.
Back when GHWB headed up the CIA in the '70's, during the Ford administration, a group of individuals talked Ford into allowing a team to revisit the CIA intelligence at the time. This was still the cold war era, of course and the USSR was the main focus. But they got their start back then. The started showing distain for the CIA back then. They found that they could cherry pick intelligence back then and turn policy to fit it.
The B-Team assembled in 1976 to show that the CIA intelligence about the USSR and it's assesment was too soft. Who were the members? There were about 8 and of these, Perle (helped get it underway), Wolfowitz (member), Rumsfeld (promoter) are still relevant today. Cheney was part of this circle at the time, though not officially on the team.
The team came up with a very scary set of data that suggested that the USSR was bolstering its weapons base in a prelude to nuclear war. Sound familiar? They attempted to derail Carter's election bid in '76 with an "October Surprise". Sound familiar?
The team brought in people from other countries to help with the assesments and used their arguments. Sound familiar?
The team took photos of relatively benign things like grain silos and said they were actually being used to house nuclear weapons... that has a ring to it too, doesn't it; especially when considering grain trucks were thought by the team to be a way to transport weaponry.
Here's another consistency with this team - they were 98% WRONG.
Why isn't the history of these idealogues being brought up? Is it to hide the Modus Operandi of these people or just lazy journalism? I'm thinking probably a bit of both with more weight on the latter than the former.
Do the google searches. Try "B-TEAM, 1976, CIA, Results". Go see for yourself and work it into your conversations/debates/education with people who still are willing to give these people the benefit of the doubt.