AEI: The Root of Bush’s Right-Wing Ideology

[RedEarth]

Today, President Bush delivered a speech on Afghanistan at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. AEI and the Bush administration are deeply entwined, something Bush admitted during his speech. “I admire AEI a lot,” Bush said. “After all, I have been consistently borrowing some of your best people. More than 20 AEI scholars have worked in my administration.”

Below are a few examples of the people and ideas that AEI has shared — or tried to share — with the Bush White House over recent years:

– Escalation. President Bush’s escalation plan is based on a report by AEI scholar Frederick Kagan. CNN reporter Suzanne Malveaux said of AEI’s influence on Iraq policy: “One conservative policy group that has the president’s ear and is influencing his thinking is the American Enterprise Institute.”

– The Cheneys. Dick Cheney served as AEI Senior Fellow from 1993-1995, and his wife Lynn currently serves as Senior Fellow studying education and children. “Both Lynne and I have a long history with the American Enterprise Institute, and we value the association,” Vice President Cheney said in 2005.

– Bomb Iran. “We must bomb Iran,” AEI Resident Scholar Joshua Muravchik wrote in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. Muravchik called for an “air campaign against Tehran’s nuclear facilities”

– Richard Perle. Perle has been at AEI since 1987, and currently serves as a Resident Fellow. A leading neoconservative, Perle was a fierce proponent of regime change in Iraq. He served as Chairman of the Defense Policy Board from 2001 to 2003.

– John Bolton. Served as Senior Vice President of AEI before coming to the Bush administration. Bolton currently serves as a Senior Fellow at AEI. “There is no such thing as the United Nations,” Bolton said. “If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”

– Climate change inaction. AEI offered $10,000 to climate change deniers to speak out against the recent IPCC climate change study.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/15/aei-bush-white-house/

[kurth]

1. The War Mongering Institute

of Pure Unadulterated Evil.

[magellan]

2. As I mentioned in another thread, PNAC was spun out of AEI

Among AEI's list of scholars and fellows are Robert Kagan and William Kristol. And there are a lot of other neocons on that list.

[EstimatedProphet]

5. Ow! Don't insult the word 'scholar' that way!

[magellan]

7. Or "fellows", some of them are women!

Well, kinda.

Point taken. lol

[rodeodance]

3. I watched his opening statements------smircking all the way

[EstimatedProphet]

4. The CHENEYS were SENIOR FELLOWS?!?

Of what? AEI has a program in Hypocrisy and Lies?

Doesn't 'Senior Fellow' imply some sort of educational requirements, other than draft dodging?

[Bucky]

8. Cheney has honorary degrees in BS.

[EstimatedProphet]

9. And a Master's in BS Production

[lonestarnot]

6. Maybe some will be punished under Kerry's bill being introduced against

the war profiteers. :shrug: