Hey, Republicans! Let's Have a War! Jude Wanniski September 29, 1998

Memo To:Richard Perle, American Enterprise Institute scholar
From: Jude Wanniski
Re:  “Deposing” Saddam Hussein

I think you are aware, Richard, that you have made my list of the “Ten Most Dangerous” people in the world. This, because of my awareness that you have decided to cap off your brilliant career as a Cold Warrior tactician by starting World War III. Because your mentor, our friend the late Albert Wohlstetter, truly deserves some credit for winning the Cold War, it is perfectly understandable to me that you would like a war of your very own, a war BIG enough to count when you win it. I’ve been watching from a distance as you have drafted various cold warriors into your army -- the biggest catch being Donald Rumsfeld, I’m sorry to say. I know, Richard, that if you are successful in starting WWIII, chances are fairly good that you will win it. Alas, there is also the chance you will not be as smart as Albert was, and a lot of blood will be spilled in a losing cause. In any case, you seem eager to spill blood.

I’m prompted to write this note of caution having spotted the following item in Seth Gitell’s column in the Forward, the Jewish weekly published by another old friend, Seth Lipsky. In Gitell’s Washington column of September 25, I read the following item:

Iraq News: With the attention of Washington riveted on the unfolding disclosures in the Monica Lewinsky case, quiet developments are taking place in the struggle to depose Saddam Hussein. Congressional staffers huddled this week with a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Richard Perle, and the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, R. James Woolsey, to discuss American backing for the plan to liberate Iraq. The president of the executive council of the Iraqi National Congress, Ahmad Chalabi, was the recipient of applause when his presence was announced at a dinner sponsored by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Meanwhile, Republican leaders are preparing to present the resigned U.N. arms inspection official, Scott Ritter, as a moral counterweight to President Clinton. Polling data suggest that Mr. Clinton may be vulnerable on foreign policy issues.

You really have to be more careful, Dick. The Iraqis read the Forward. And the Iraqi Ambassador to the United States, Nizar Hamdoon, knows you are manically bent on instigating a war between the NATO powers and Baghdad. I’ve talked to Hamdoon about you and he knows you would like to get the Baghdad regime kicked out of the United Nations so that it has no voice in the United States.

Richard, we have been shoulder-to-shoulder in the Cold wars since we met in 1969. You know I respect your great intelligence. But you should know that there are a few of us out here who know all about your diabolical schemes to foment conflict for the sake of conflict. We are keeping our eye on you.