Continuing her series on US war hawks, Lamis Andoni traces the history of Zalmay Khalilzad Zalmay Khalilzad, the American special envoy "to free Iraqis", is perhaps the highest ranking Muslim official in the history of the US. But the Afghan-born official, may be the first Muslim "viceroy" appointed by a western imperial power to shape the governance of conquered, or would-be conquered, lands. Since his appointment as ambassador at large to Afghanistan last year, Khalilzad has emerged as the point- man for President George Bush's policy for "regime change" in countries deemed a threat to American interests. His role in installing Hamid Karzai and the Afghan government demonstrated the heavy-handed American handling of the political process in post-Taliban Afghanistan. He applied the same skills last week in London by trying to appoint the Iraqi National Congress, led by his friend Ahmed Chalabi, as de facto leader for the Iraqi opposition. The American emissary's efforts may flounder, but the appointment of Khalilzad as the main interlocutor with Iraqi opposition has advanced the agenda of "the war hawks". The former Columbia university professor is by no means a mere foot soldier following his commander's orders. Once a pro-Palestinian radical student activist, he became right-wing when he went back to the University of Chicago for his PhD, reportedly influenced by a conservative professor, where he found friends in peers like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. After working for the State Department and the Pentagon in the mid-1980s, he found a niche among the "cold warriors" who were reinstated after the election of George Bush. In the 19090s Khalilzad became one of the main thinkers and orchestrators of the strategy which had been incorporated into what is known as "the Bush doctrine" -- long before George W Bush announced his plans for Afghanistan and Iraq. In 1992, the then Defence Minister Dick Cheney formed a team to draw up a post-cold war "national defence strategy" for the 1990s. But the victory of Bill Clinton placed that plan on hold. In 1995 Khalilzad, working for the right- wing Rand Corp, summed up the proposed strategy in a book entitled "From Containment to Global Leadership: America and the World after the Cold War". In his book, Khalilzad strongly recommended that the US preclude the rise of another global rival for the indefinite future, prevent "hostile" hegemony "over critical regions" and preserve American military preeminence. "It is a vital US interest to preclude such a development, i.e. to be willing to use force if necessary for the purpose," he wrote. Later on Khalilzad extended his recommendations to include disproportionate military response against any country that sponsors terrorism by "targeting its economic infrastructure, its communications ...until it renounces terrorism". "In short, we punish to deter," he wrote in the Weekly Standard in 1996. The 11 September attacks gave Khalilzad, as well as the hawks in Washington, a golden opportunity to define the enemy as "terror and countries with weapons of mass destruction" -- and carry out their mission. Shortly before the 9/11 attacks, in an article published in the Washington Quarterly he urged the US to collaborate discreetly with Russia and Iran to destabilise the Taliban. After the destruction of the Twin Towers, he became a key member of the team that planned war action against Afghanistan, and was soon appointed ambassador at large to his country of origin. His success in putting together an Afghan government led by Karzai -- reportedly by coercing representatives of the Loya Jirga and appeasing the war lords -- rocketed Khalilzad from being a behind-the-scenes strategist to a visible world player. He was the ideal choice: an ethnic Pashtun, born in Mazar Al-Sherif, Khalilzad had connections with the Afghan war lords since the days when he had been a go-between for the Ronald Regan Administration and the mujahidin. But Khalilzad was not always hawkish against the Taliban. In fact, up until 1999 he had lobbied for the US to "engage the Taliban ...[which] does not practice the anti- US style of fundamentalism practiced in Iran". At that time Khalilzad was a paid consultant for the American UNOCAL company which was involved in negotiations to secure the Taliban's approval to build a $2.5 billion pipeline to transport oil from Central Asia through Afghanistan to the Pakistani coast. The talks collapsed in 1998, shortly after which Khalilzad called the Taliban a "rogue" regime. His position, however, did not only emanate from his private interests, but partly reflected his published views that American influence in Afghanistan was crucial to prevent Russia's regional "expansion" and to curb Iranian influence in oil--rich central Asia. Khalilzad, however, has been consistent in his hawkish stands on both Iran and Iraq throughout the 1990s. In December 1997, Khalilzad and Wolfowitz has called publicly for a "regime change" in Iraq and even outlined again "a six point plan to topple Saddam Hussein". A number of other neo-conservatives -- many of whom are now in key government positions -- and Likudnik Zionists, endorsed the main outlines of the plan that was included in a letter sent to President Bill Clinton on 19 February 1998. A month later Khalilzad joined Chalabi and former Central Intelligence Agency Chief James Woolsey in successfully persuading Congress, with the help of hardline senators, to revive political and financial support for the INC. In his congressional testimony, Khalilzad suggested embarking on a course of sustained air raids to dismantle Saddam's defences, to destroy the Iraqi National Guards and to create "safe havens" for the Kurds, with an American- armed and financed Iraqi opposition force to control the rest of the country. Ironically, Khalilzad warned that "military invasion of Iraq could involve significant casualties and might risk involvement in a protracted war". By the time he was appointed as special advisor to the president for Near Eastern, Southwest Asian and North African Affairs, he had abandoned his words of caution. At a briefing at the pro-IsraeliWashington Institute for Near East Affairs, Khalilzad declared that Washington could install a US-led military government in Iraq to assure transition to an elected civilian government. He said that under such plans, a US-led special assistant coalition "will assume ... responsibility for the territorial defence and security of Iraq after liberation". Khalilzad has been a true spokesman for the hawks on all issues with the exception of the US role in the Israeli- Palestinian "peace process". He has argued that Palestinian-Israeli peace would allow the US to set up a security pact which includes Israel and Arabs, to undercut "hostile states" and consolidate its interests in securing oil supplies and protecting Israel. His position, including his reference to "the legitimacy of Palestinian rights", and his ethnic and religious background ran counter to the agenda of his Likudnik and neo- conservative backers. Most recently Khalilzad was replaced by Elliot Abrams, a vehement opponent of the Palestinians and the "peace process". Abrams is infamous for his role in the Iran--Contra affair and notorious for his cover up on crimes committed by US-backed military in Central America. The Weekly Standard, the de facto platform of the hawks, has openly celebrated the event as a setback for Secretary of State Colin Powell's efforts to revive Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. But Khalilzad, who has already been making threatening statements to Tehran, remains the point man "of choice" to dictate American power over Afghans, Iraqis and the rest of the countries awaiting US wrath. The "Ugly American" has been replaced by a dark-skinned native.
