388 Barack H. Obama: The Unauthorized Biographythe Taliban, or the “global war on terror,” but had everything to do with the fact that Pakistan was a
traditional Chinese ally and economic and trading partner. Pakistan had to be destroyed as part of
the Brzezinski strategy to strip China of all of her allies, and promote the isolation and encirclement
of the Middle Kingdom. By this time, northwest Pakistan was one of the very few parts of the
world where the US continued to rely on the bin Laden-Al Qaeda myth to justify its policy.
Elsewhere, considerations of humanitarian intervention and human rights were on the front burner.
GOP: LAME DUCK BUSH REDUCED TO CHILD’S PLAY
In the late spring and early summer of 2008, a series of events further underlined the degree to
which Bush, Cheney, and the neocons had indeed lost power to Brzezinski and company. Bush and
Cheney appeared to have about as much power as the White House janitor or the groundskeeper at
the Naval Observatory. Bush and Cheney were variously described as finished, washed up, lame
ducks, figureheads, and kaput. Some Republicans were becoming concerned that Bush had lapsed
into a figurehead-lame-duck status, and impotence and passivity so extreme that they might become
a negative factor for McCain in the upcoming election. One columnist noted: ‘Some of President
Bush’s allies tell the Political Bulletin they are embarrassed and angry that the White House seems
to be wasting Bush’s time on frivolous events when much of the country is suffering through
economic hard times. “Look at the schedule for Monday,” says an outside Bush adviser. “A highlight
of his day was witnessing a tee ball game. ... He is being reduced to child’s play.” The adviser says
Bush also signed a supplemental appropriations bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on
Monday, but he adds that it didn’t get much coverage and that the tee ball game set the wrong tone.
There is growing concern among Bush allies that the Democrats will effectively portray the
President and GOP candidate John McCain as out of touch. Some GOP insiders now predict that the
Republicans will lose at least five seats in the Senate and 15 to 20 in the House, and it could get
worse if gasoline prices continue to soar and the public remains in a disgruntled mood.’^211
THE NORTH KOREA DEAL: CHENEY VANQUISHED, APOPLECTIC
A leading symptom of this loss of power by Bush and Cheney was the announcement by
Secretary of State Rice, another member of the Principals’ Committee, that a deal had been reached
with North Korea (the DPRK) concerning the termination of the North Korean nuclear weapons
program, in exchange for which the United States had pledged to remove North Korea from the
State Department list of terrorist states. The remaining neocons were apoplectic to the point of
foaming at the mouth. The British press revealed that the diehard Cheney had fought tooth and nail
to block this deal, but had been vanquished by Rice — and thus by the superior power of the
Principals’ Committee, in our view: ‘Vice President Dick Cheney fought furiously to block efforts
by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to strike a controversial US compromise deal with North
Korea over the communist state’s nuclear program... Mr Cheney was so angry about the decision to
remove North Korea from the terrorism blacklist and lift some sanctions that he abruptly curtailed a
meeting with visiting US foreign experts when asked about it in the White House last week,
according to the New York Times “I’m not going to be the one to announce this decision. You need
to address your interest in this to the State Department,” he reportedly said before leaving the room.
“The exchanges between Cheney’s office and Rice’s people at State got very testy. But ultimately
Condi had the President’s ear and persuaded him that his legacy would be stronger if they reached a
deal with Pyongyang,” said a Pentagon adviser who was briefed on the battle.’ Top neocon John
Bolton was beside himself with rage, and saw this deal with the DPRK as a harbinger of the neocon
Götterdämmerung: ‘“It’s shameful,” said John Bolton, Bush’s former U.S. ambassador to the