The recent response by Rethug Pentagon hack Eric Edelman to Senator Clinton's request for information on contingency planning for withdrawal from Iraq has prompted a look into Edelman's background. For starters, he's a refugee from the Reagan and Bush Daddy administrations, and a protege of Dead Eye Dick Cheney. Also, a former ambassador to Turkey, where he made himself "persona non grata" by interfering in his host country's internal affairs (a neocon trait). He was also one of the authors of the 1992 Draft Defense Planning Guidance paper, which laid out an aggressive plan for U.S. domination in the world (ditto above), and which was considered too radical to be implemented.
So when he responded to Sen. Clinton's request for a troop withdrawal contingency plan, it's no surprise that this partisan hack suggested that such thoughts would encourage our enemies, etc. etc. As with so many neocon chickenhawks (Kristol, the Kagans, Wolfowitz, Perle, Podhoretz, and so on), Edelman has never faced combat or worn his country's uniform. And yet, he thinks he's obligated to put our men and woman in harm's way to carry out his asinine world view that will, if left unchecked, destroy our standing and influence in the world. And do nothing but increase the ranks of extemists bent on terrorism.
