Prince of Darkness Quits - Goodbye and Good Riddance

by Jim Moore

03/31/2003

You can always tell when there's trouble brewing. The smarties take a powder, Investors sell before the market bottoms out. Gamblers cut their losses and quit. Rats leave sinking ships.

Waiting around to see how it all ends is for the klutzes in the world. And Richard Perle is certainly no klutz. So he resigned.

This may come as a surprise to many of the Beltway proles and other uninformed members of the general public, but certainly no great surprise to most high rollers at the Pentagon, and many of the more hip political players and media punditry.
Richard Perle, you remember, was the Pentagon official and chairman of a group that personally advised Defense Secretary Rumsfeld on policy issues. That's Pentagonese for minor matters, like, should we go to war, and how soon can we jump into it? 

Perle's reason for resigning is classic monetary maneuvering. He says he did not want any controversy that might arise over his business dealings to detract from Rumsfeld's management of the war in Iraq. Being careful, however, not to give away any points he still might have, Perle graciously agreed to stay on as a board member. 

How thoughtful of him

The controversy Perle wisely intended to avoid revolved around a deal with bankrupt Global Crossing, Ltd. Perle tried to win government approval of Global's purchase by a joint venture of two Asian firms. According to the deal, Perle was to get $725,000 for his pitch to the government, including $600,000 if the government okayed the deal. 

Perle, or course, has denied any wrong doing. In the Defense policy board-of which Perle was chairman-- you do not give advice on any matter in which you have a personal stake. That would be a conflict of interest, which is a no-no with the board. "And I don't do that," Perle, intoned. "I have never done that."

In his resignation letter, however, Perle wrote that he "could not quickly or easily quell criticisms" in the Global Crossing controversy, and added that it was "based on errors of fact." 
Not privy to the inner workings of high finance, this writer can only wonder what is meant by the "quelling of criticisms" and "errors of fact" that were instrumental in Perle's decision to step down. Were they in any way germane to Perle's comment, "I would not wish to cause even a moment's distraction from:" the war effort?

A deeper question is, if Perle has advised Global Crossing that he would accept no compensation from the pending sale, and that any fee for his past services would be donated to the families of American forces killed or injured in Iraq, why then would it be mandatory, even necessary, for Perle to resign his Chairman of the Defense policy board? There would be no interests to conflict.

It's been bantered about that Richard Perle is resigning because he sees some dismal handwriting on the wall concerning the war in Iraq, and, as primer of the pump for Bush's war machine, he wants to dodge blame in the event of a negative turn of events.
Anything to that? Let's connect some dots.

Four or five influential Republican politicians have recently resigned, stating their opposition to the president's foreign policy of global involvement.

Troops, sailing over Iraq the first week of the war, are now bogged down 50 miles from Baghdad, and being attacked from the rear by pockets of Iraqi soldiers.
A troubling question is causing consternation in the higher echelons of the military; to wit, our miscalculation of the numbers of soldiers and armored vehicles needed to win this war quickly and decisively.

Apparently no contingency plan for a northern invasion of Iraq if our foot soldiers were denied access to Iraq through Turkey, which they were.

The cost of the war is beginning to grossly exceed the estimated funds provided for it.
When the next contingent of 120,000 troops arrive in Iraq, it will constitute more than half of the entire U.S. Army and Marine Corps.

Ours is not to call any shots until all the facts are in. But it seems reasonable to suspect that Richard Perle, the prime instigator of war in Iraq, should instinctively use an escape hatch when the war takes an unexpected bad turn.

Prince Charming, he's not.



Jim Moore
Jmoore1819@aol.com