No Longer in Power, Free To Talk, Neocons Seek To Rewrite History

The audience was a receptive one at the Brookings Institution during a recent presentation on foreign policy recommendations for the incoming president. Experts explained in detail their view of the Bush administration’s blunders and how the Obama team should reverse almost every policy the outgoing administration has set in place over the past eight years.

Still, as the litany of criticism continued, one person in the back row of the Brookings briefing room seemed to draw attention. It was Elliott Abrams, President Bush’s deputy national security adviser and probably the last neoconservative still serving in a senior position in the current administration.

By the end of January 2009, the tables will turn. Many of the outside experts, with their bold new ideas, will become part of the government, and current officials such as Abrams will look for their place in the capital’s think-tank scene....

Most of those who share Abrams’s views are already out of government. They left feeling bitter toward, and frustrated with, the outgoing administration for, as they saw it, making them scapegoats for the Iraq War. They had the same feelings for the liberals and the media who chose to side with their critics.

Now, neocons feel it is time to set the record straight and move on.

“We will go to the public. We will show a massive amount of documentation and explanation of what really went on,” declared David Wurmser, former Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. “This will start the process of rewriting history, which up to now was written based on leaks against us. From our point our view, the past four years were miserable because we had to muzzle ourselves and remain loyal.”