Brazen Bullies and Dope Smoking Morons

In certains areas, neocons have forthright opinions and don't hold anything back. For example, this letter, sent to Clinton in 1998, by the PNAC neocon group states plainly that the reason to confront Iraq was to protect our interests in oil. You would think they might want to eliminate this from their website after all these years, but no, they have righteousness on their side. Newt Gingrich said essentially the same thing on Meet the Press today; essentially repeating that we went into Iraq to protect oil interests. And further that we should henceforth prevent all global oil resources from falling into the hands of terrorists.

The list of 18 authors on the PNAC letter has an interesting entry (at least to me) -- one Vin Weber. A former Republican congressman from out-state Minnesota, and Gingrich confidante, Weber left congress after the check-kiting scandal from a few years back and then became a big-time consultant. My own personal knowledge of Weber, comes through a colleague in graduate school who grew up in roughly the same area of extreme southwestern Minnesota as "Cousin Vinny". All I remember from my office-mate is his insistence that Weber was just a slightly older dope that smoked marijuana in the backwaters. I recall that he only knew of Weber via mutual acquaintances.

This whole story in real terms is pretty meaningless, except for the route he took. From rural hick to a neocon dick, in a few doctrine-spewing steps. As we were warned in our youth, get involved with the "bad crowd" and it might drag you down. Luckily, he managed to eventually escape the rural "bad influences" of his rebellious years, but the neocons are a whole different breed of gangster cult.