Edward Duggan’s THE WAR LOBBY: Iraq and the Pursuit of U.S. Primacy [full text online]

[Anthony Thorne]

This 162 pg. thesis is among the most valuable of the online dissertations I've stumbled across as of late another very worthwhile book in miniature. It is extremely well researched (the abstract and chapter headings are below), and I learned quite a bit from it. Note to 9/11 researchers: this document fits perfectly with Peter Dale Scott's analysis of the Neoconservatives and their pursuit of Continuity of Government (COG) across various administrations, particularly with Duggan's strong emphasis on the roles of Cheney and Rumsfeld. Reading this enabled me to join a few dots and look at some things in a new light.

The link to the PDF is immediately below.

THE WAR LOBBY: IRAQ AND THE PURSUIT OF U.S. PRIMACY

…The invasion of Iraq was a part of a larger project by Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to reestablish the unconstrained use of U.S. military power after the defeat of Vietnam. The study presents the best evidence against the alternative explanations that the invasion of Iraq was the result of an overreaction to 9/11, the threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction, a plan to spread democracy in the Middle East, a desire to protect Israel or a plan to profit from Iraqi oil. The study also challenges the leading explanation among academics that emphasizes the role of the neoconservatives in the decision to invade. These academics argue that neoconservatives, such as Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, successfully persuaded the American President, George W. Bush, and his Vice President, Dick Cheney, of the necessity to eliminate Saddam Hussein by winning an internal policy battle over realists, such as Secretary of State Colin Powell.

With their narrow focus on neoconservatives and realists, scholars have largely overlooked a third group of hawkish policy makers, the primacists. This latter group, centered on Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney, had a long standing goal of strengthening the U.S. military and presidential powers in order to pursue U.S. primacy. This goal manifests itself in the invasion of Iraq, a country in the heart of the geopolitically important, oil-rich region of the Persian Gulf.

…It was the primacists, not the neoconservatives, who persuaded the President to go to war with Iraq. Through historical process tracing, especially through a close look at the careers of the major policy actors involved and their public statements as well as declassified documents, I provide strong evidence that these leaders wanted to pursue regime change in Iraq upon taking office. The invasion of Iraq would extend the War on Terror, providing an opportunity to pursue their long-held policy of strengthening the power of the presidency and transforming the military into a high-tech and well-funded force.


I. WHY IRAQ? THE WAR LOBBY

Questions Asked: Why They Arise
Arguments Advanced: Answers Offered
Methods: Piecing Together the Discoveries of the Blind Men and the Elephant
Plan of the Study


II. THE CHENEY AND RUMSFELD CONSENSUS IN THE LITERATURE

The Blind Men and the Elephant: Understanding All the Parts of the Agenda for U.S. Primacy
Sending a Signal with Shock and Awe: Iraq as an Effective, Unilateral Demonstration of American Military Force
The Economic Invasion of Iraq: Shrinking the U.S. Government while Expanding the Role of Private Businesses in Foreign and Domestic Policy
Contract Nation: Creation of a Private Army in Iraq and on the Home Front
A Bush Administration of the Corporations, by the Corporations, and for the Corporations
Presidential Supremacy over Foreign Policy: Using the War to Strengthen Presidential Power
A New Way of War in Iraq: Transforming the Military into a Well-Funded, High-Tech Force that Can Act with Devastating Force Anywhere on the
Globe, with Lower Casualties
A War for Oil: U.S. Regional Hegemony over the Persian Gulf
Ensuring Access: An Invasion to Protect the Flow of Oil from the Persian Gulf
Peak Oil: The Fear of a Permanent Decline in World Oil Production
Oil for Profits: The Greed of the Oil Companies Drives the U.S. to Open Up Access to Iraq
Smoking Guns and Mushroom Clouds: Selling Saddam as an Imminent Threat
Bringing Bush Back into the Equation: Frequent Foreign Policy Victories plus the Perception of Threat Ensures Electoral Success
Conclusion: A Comprehensive Agenda for U.S. Hegemony


THE PLAN FOR U.S. PRIMACY: THREE DECADES IN THE MAKING

All Volunteer Force: Using the Market to Create a Usable Military
Ending Vietnam to Make War Safe from Democracy
Outsourcing Government: Office of Economic Opportunity
Price Controls: Do No Harm--To the Oil Market
Rumsfeld as Head of NATO: The Need for Unilateral Action
The Year of Intelligence: The Need for Presidential Power and Secrecy
The Vietnam Syndrome: Congressional Constraints on America's Use of Force
The Mayaguez Incident: A Presidential Demonstration of American Force
Cheney and Rumsfeld Seek Presidential Power for Themselves
The Halloween Day Massacre: Primacists Take Power of the Executive
Nuclear Shift: Reassessing the Cold War Threat
More Power to the Leader: Restoring Authority to the Executive Branch
Cheney Inflates the Threat of the Soviets to Fight the Peace Dividend


ESSENCE OF THE DECIDER: WHY GEORGE W. BUSH DECIDED TO INVADE IRAQ

Opening Profile
9/11: An Opportunity to Invade
Alternative Hypotheses
Bush' s Oedipal Complex
Revenge on the Man Who Tried to Kill My Daddy
A Born Again Crusade in the Middle East
Incompetence Theory
Regime Building at Home through Force of Arms
Fighting the Wimp Factor; Lining Up Investors in Oil and Politics
The Family Business of Oil and Politics
Learning Attack Politics: The 1988 Presidential Election


THE IRAQ INVASION: U.S. PRIMACY IMPLEMENTED

Introduction
Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bush: Unilateral Action from the Start
Shrinking Government, Protecting Oil and Power: Cheney and Bush Push their Agenda
Rumsfeld Goes to WarAgainst the Pentagon
Rumsfeld Tries End Runs around Obstacles
Help Is on the Way: Cheney and Rumsfeld Try to Start a Cold War with China
9/11: Opportunity for Permanent War
Iraq and the Mushroom Cloud: A Well-Practiced Model Inflates the Iraq Threat
Shock and Awe: Rumsfeld's Dream of a Demonstration Model Realized
Shock Therapy: Bremer Imposes a Free Market
Contracting a Private Army: Rumsfeld Changes the Way America Goes to War
Bush Goes Soft on Cheney: Bush Fires Rumsfeld in Spite of Cheney's Opposition
Thank God for the Decider: Bush Ignores Cheney and Refuses to Bomb Iran, Syria, and Others
Leaving a Man on the Battlefield: Bush Makes More Decisions


LESSONS FROM THE IRAQ INVASION

The Theoretical Implications of My Arguments
Systemic Level Explanation: The Unconstrained Unipolar Power
Domestic Level Explanations
Individual Level Explanations
My Explanation: The Key Individuals Clear Away the Domestic Constraints
Mission Accomplished? What Are the Policy Implications of the Invasion of Iraq?
No More Low Hanging Fruit: A Demonstration of the Democratization of Violence
Privatizing America's War-Making and Intelligence
The Imperial Presidency Confirmed: Barak Obama Fails to Roll Back the Power of the Executive
A State of Permanently High Military Budgets: The Preservation of the Revolution in Military Affairs
The Persian Gulf: New Permanent Military Bases
Threat Inflation: Maintaining the War on Terror
Electoral Success through War
Living in Cheney's World

[Peter Lemkin]

I took a quick look at it and it is interesting. I found it odd though that PDS is not listed in the bibliography, though some others familiar with his work were.