Seventh in a series of chronological posts from the first days of the Bush administration through the aftermath of the Iraq war.

 
March – April – May 2001.   Throughout the spring of 2001, administration neo-consolidation and personnel appointments along the same lines continue, installing a phalanx of officials in sensitive security positions bent on war with Iraq. March 2001:

March 2, 2001 – Paul Wolfowitz, who supports ‘regime change’ in Iraq, is sworn in as Deputy Secretary of Defense.

March 2001 – Vice President Cheney’s energy task force, officially named the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG) and chaired by Dick Cheney, has already developed an extensive collection of documents including maps of oil fields, pipelines, refineries and tanker terminals in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

March 12, 2001 – Bush nominates Paula J. Dobriansky to be Under Secretary for Global Affairs, Dept of State. Dobriansky also signed the 1998 PNAC letter calling for regime change in Iraq.

March 13, 2001 – Bush’s National Security Presidential Directive of February is released publicly.

March 21, 2001 – William Kristol, Chairman of the ‘Project for the New American Century’ and editor of the rightwing Weekly Standard magazine, owned by Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch, testifies at a congressional hearing on national security and defense. Kristol testifies strenuously that ending the Cold War should not mean a ‘peace dividend’ and calls instead for ever-increasing authorizations of defense funding, even before decisions on what to spend the money on have been completed. Kristol cites a September 2000 White Paper written principally by PNAC member Thomas Donnelly titled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses”; he also cites a heavily criticized 1992 draft on strategy prepared under Wolfowitz for then-Secretary of Defense Cheney. Kristol expresses regret that the first Bush White House backed off policies of military expansion and dominance, and testifies explicitly that the U.S. should not be too afraid of “nation-building.”

March 23, 2001 – Richard L. Armitage, reportedly a friend of Colin Powell and a longtime high-level confidential source for Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, is confirmed as Deputy Secretary of State.