I thought I was pretty well informed on who the big players among the neocons were: Wolfowitz, Norquist, etc. But today I learned another name, a man I hadn't heard of before but who is apparently rather influential to Bush, Cheney, Rove, and Rumsfeld.
His name is Michael Ledeen, and he was profiled in this week's issue of the Norwegian weekly cultural newspaper
Morgenbladet. He is a believer in and advocate for the doctrine of "creative destruction", which was created by the Italian facists in last century. He is also referred to in the article as "...the most important inspiration for the Bush administration*" and is believed to be one of the main persons behind the infamous yellowcake fraud. He has also written, on 4 September 2004, that "the question is not whether we will destabilize Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, but when" and has advocated "revolutionary war" in those countries in order to re-shape the entire Middle East. He claims that the recent conflict between Israel and Lebanon is "the beginning of a war against Syria and Iran, which the US cannot stand outside of" and follows up with the claim that " US casualties are a secondary concern because we are a war-loving people, we love war. What the US hates isn't the loss of American lives but to lose. 'Creative Destruction' is the defining characteristic of the USA."
The most frightening line in the entire article, however, is the assertion that "the USA will hold Iran responsible for the next terror attack on the USA".
So just who is this guy, anyway? Am I the only person who has never heard of him? I thought I was getting pretty jaded, actually, and that I could no longer be shocked by the nonsense that the neocons spew. I was wrong.
(*These quotes were translated from the Norwegian article by my husband and myself so I apologize for any errors, as neither of us are professional translators. Morgenbladet online is subscription-only.)