How to Fight the Mighty Morphin’ Neocons AND Their Trusty Sidekicks

By Jacques Kinau

Power neocons (l-r) Conrad Black, George Will, Martin Indyk, Richard Perle and William Kristol (courtesy StinkTank.org).

AS PRESS BARON Conrad Black faces ouster from Hollinger International—and seems to be taking Richard Perle down with him—many Americans, blighted by the neocons’ pervasive infestation of the U.S. media, may think they can rest easier. One can’t blame them, of course, for being grateful for any reprieve. However, even though Hollinger’s illicit payments to Perle, George F. Will and a legion of neocon sympathizers have been permanently cut off, it is too soon to let down one’s guard. Since their early days as Trotskyite radicals, America’s neocons have exhibited an uncanny ability to morph into parasitic forms and attach themselves to new hosts for nurture.

One effective strategy for drying up the neocons’ media habitat might be to interrupt their food chain. Information distortion and beating the drums of war is an expensive endeavor, after all! Although neocons are prolific and able to move quickly among their hosts, past and present neocon funding sources have now been exposed. Although some product categories and corporations are not necessarily wholly responsible for the nutrients they provided for neocons, boycotts are a form of pre-emptive war (which means even President George W. Bush might endorse the tactic). If the neocon funding pools are dried up, few new corporations and foundations will risk their brands and reputations in the future. Surely, if pre-emption is good for Iraq, the neocons will not object to a taste of their own medicine.

The most prolific neocon think-tanks are funded by a small handful of ultra right-wing foundations, including the Sara Scaife Foundation (Gulf Oil) and Smith Richardson (Vicks VapoRub fortune), which pump in millions for “studies” such as David Wurmser’s “The Battle Cry of Tyranny: Anti-Americanism in Arab Politics.”

Gulf Oil has 1,800 service stations in the Northeast alone, and that VapoRub on your child’s chest won’t deflect a bullet from a future war. So forget about Vicks, a brand that soothed and nurtured Wurmser (now Vice President Dick Cheney’s Middle East adviser) and his extreme theories. You may also want to avoid Coors beer (Castle Rock Foundation) and Winchester Ammunition (Olin Foundation)—not that you probably buy much ammo.

The most important neocon host organisms, however, are America’s corporate news media. Conrad Black’s slavering and ubiquitous neocon minions—including Perle, Will, and The New York Times’ William Safire—continue to infect the Chicago Sun Times, Jerusalem Post, the Daily Telegraph and endless cable television shows.

The Bradley Foundation (defense contractor Rockwell International, later Rockwell Automation) made 15 grants totaling nearly $1.9 million to the New Citizenship Project Inc., founded by media talking head William Kristol of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Weekly Standard. The New Citizenship Project in turn created the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), which has been a consistent cheerleader for a violent and interventionist U.S. policy (known by some as the “Defense Contractor Full Employment Act”).

Bradley—which financed Robert Kaplan’s hatchet job, The Arabists—also is a significant funding source for the American Enterprise Institute, which serves as the bacteriological culture for Washington, DC neoconservatives.

Although Rockwell does not produce many consumer goods, PNAC’s other major funder, media mogul Rupert Murdoch of News Corp, produces gobs of pricey “infotainment.” Declining to partake of News Corp content by avoiding exposure to Fox News and Fox sponsors also flushes out that Bill Kristol and David Brooks breeding ground, the Weekly Standard. Since News Corp recently acquired DirecTV, you might want to turn your satellite dish into a Frisbee and play fetch with your dog.

Targeting Fox is also a smart strategy for cutting off nutrients to “centrist” posers that in truth are merely neocon sidekicks, such as the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy. Fox Television executive Haim Saban, who brought you the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, also sponsors that Mighty Morphin’ Martin Indyk (former Australian, instant American, U.S. ambassador to Israel, and now director at the pro-war Saban Center) through a massive $13 million contribution. By not letting the kiddies watch Fox productions or buy Saban’s (TM) Power Rangers until the Rangers join in an honest battle to save the Palestinians, you can help unplug the Brookings-Saban gleeful spew of war mongering and bad policy advice.


Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz helped lease Boeing aircraft for future Gulf wars (courtesy StinkTank.org).

Your vacation and business travel plans can also have a direct impact on neocon nutrient sources. Boeing not only has purchased, for $20 million, heartfelt accolades from Richard Perle (whose first boss on Capitol Hill was Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, the Washington state Democrat known as the “senator from Boeing”), but also has showered Pentagon procurement officials with relocation and job offers in order to pump more Boeing refueling tankers into the Gulf theater at a premium price to U.S. taxpayers. Avoiding Boeing like the plague counts as a vote of no-confidence in neocon Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz’s cozy leasing deal with Boeing for future wars in the Gulf. Instead, fly an Airbus for an enriching cultural tour to Syria, Lebanon or Egypt—countries about which most Americans know nothing, thanks in large part to media moguls like Black and Murdoch.

For an advanced cure, consider tactics designed to squeeze even more dollars out of the neocon war machine. Compile a mailing list of U.S. Army, Navy and Marine reserve units in your neighborhood. Explain to them the neocon roots of the war on Iraq, as laid out in “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” the 1996 report prepared by Perle, Wurmser and company for then-incoming Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. (Be sure to translate the document into Spanish for new immigrant “guest workers” from down south streaming in to take up such hard-to-fill military positions as waist gunner, mine-sweeper, MP, etc.)

As the shortage of military recruits intensifies, the Pentagon already has begun forming local draft boards. Volunteer for your local board so that you can focus recruiting away from the poor and disadvantaged and toward neocon supporters and their privileged children in your neighborhood.

Finally, educate your neighbors. Host college professors from the local university Middle East departments and other informed non-ideologues to hold community discussions and outreach—but do exercise control over your registration list! Protesting and writing letters to media ombudsmen about neocon news outbreaks is like shouting at bacteria: it will not cure the infestation. Targeted actions to dry up dollars flowing to neocons’ protozoan feeding chain are a comparative gallon of Lysol—only much more effective.

Jacques Kinau, a non-resident fellow at StinkTank, writes for Academics for Justice, and San Francisco IndyMedia. His policy analysis has also appeared in CounterPunch. Kinaucan be reached at: <JacquesKinau@stinktank.org>. This article’s references and background notes, as well as other content, can be accessed on the Web at <http://StinkTank.org>.