Web Letters: Das Boot: The Unsinkable Warmonger

If Max Boot wins the gold medal, then William Kristol is my pick for second place in the race for "America's Leading Imperialist Pundit."

I can't identify any journalist who has beaten the drums more loudly than Kristol for all the disastrous pro-war policies of the Bush administration.

Kristol is a key neocon generalissimo in the ongoing GOP War on Iraq and America. He got everything wrong on Iraq, and--in the reincarnation of George W. Bush in John McCain--he advocated more of the same.

Since Kristol already had access to many of America's biggest soapboxes, one wonders why the New York Times gave him a precious op-ed voice.

Kristol is cofounder of The Project for the New American Century, which years before 9/11 advocated the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

This leading neocon warmonger is the editor of The Weekly Standard and co-authored its infamous November 17, 1997, cover story titled, "Saddam Must Go." He is in the pocket of Rupert Murdoch, who funded and started The Weekly Standard in 1995.

Australian-born Murdoch in turn is Exhibit A for the case that America needs better border security.

If you are a warmonger lusting to invade a nation that had zero to do with 9/11, it helps to have a knuckle-dragger like Rupert Murdoch on your side. During the run-up to the war on Iraq, all 175 Murdoch-controlled newspapers worldwide supported the war in editorials.

Rupert is the principal shareholder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation, which owns Fox News, better known as Faux News, where Kristol is a frequent guest.

The Economist reported in 1999 that Murdoch's British holding company had paid no net corporate tax over the previous eleven years even though it had made $2.1 billion in profits over that period. The Economist further noted that Murdoch's entity would normally have been expected to pay $350 million in corporate taxes during that period.

This and much more appears in my book, "The Bush League of Nations: The Coalition of the Unwilling, the Bullied and the Bribed--the GOP's War on Iraq and America" (2008, CreateSpace Publishing, 448 pages). You can download the entire book for free at www.bushleagueofnations.com.

I ask for nothing in return, except that you perhaps use my book to help restore and build America.

James A. Swanson

Los Altos, CA