Kenneth Adelman

Adelman was among the most vociferous of the neocon turncoats, which, as Ken Silverstein pointed out in Harper's magazine, was no small irony. Wrote Silverstein: "Adelman's hypocrisy is stunning. In 2002 it was he who famously predicted that American forces would enjoy 'a cakewalk' in Iraq, and during the run-up to the invasion he derided war critics for their stupidity and naiveté." Silverstein quoted Adelman's declaration on Hardball a few days before the war began: "There's always the Chicken Littles, running around saying 'oh my God, it's terrible'" (Harper's, November 20, 2006).

Adelman's attacks on war opponents were not limited to Americans. In a 2002 article titled "The Ankle Biters," Adelman lambasted Arab countries for their criticism of U.S. Middle East policy, writing: "Before criticizing us, Arabs should read the UN's 'Arab Human Development Report,' and realize they have no grounds to criticize successful societies. With a collective population roughly that of the United States, the 22 Arab states have: a total GDP less than Spain's, with exports (without oil) less than Norway's, and per capita income less than one-sixth that of Western democracies . no visible presence in the main arenas of human excellence today-Nobel Prize winners, World Cup finalists, Olympic medal-winners, breakthrough scientists, leading historians, international business tycoons; no civil or political rights of a democracy or decent society. These are the hallmarks of a declining civilization . Arab leaders lack standing to criticize America as No. 1" (FoxNews.com, July 10, 2002).

Though he started out vocally pro-invasion of Iraq, it was not long before he changed his mind, at least partially. By 2004, Adelman had begun to do something the president seems to have a hard time doing-admitting he was wrong. Writing in an op-ed for USA Today: "Those of us who championed Iraq's liberation were way too sanguine. We were wrong about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction. Wrong about Iraqis cooperating fully after Saddam Hussein was deposed. And probably wrong about close ties between Saddam's henchman and al-Qaida's fanatics." But Adelman stopped short of a full change of heart, saying that on just about everything else, he and his neoconservative and hardline cohorts had been correct-especially about the need to promote democracy in the Middle East. He derided the "panicky cries for a change of course," arguing that "calling for a new U.S. approach, for its own sake, risks undermining this battle" (March 13, 2004).

By mid-2006, Adelman was revealing signs of increasing disenchantment with the administration, though not specifically with the war. He criticized Bush for meeting with President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Marxist leader of the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). In a letter of protest to the State Department, Adelman wrote: "How then can the likes of Sassou-Nguesso, given his long record of brutality, Marxist politics, and stunning rip-offs, be given the biggest prize of American approval: a White House meeting with the president?" (Washington Times, June 5, 2006).

By November 2006, Adelman completed his journey to full-fledged critic, giving high profile interviews to Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and the Washington Post in which he joined the growing chorus of neoconservatives who blamed the failures of the Iraq War on administration incompetence. Regarding his infamous "cakewalk" quote, Adelman told Vanity Fair: "I just presumed that what I considered to be the most competent national-security team since Truman was indeed going to be competent. They turned out to be among the most incompetent teams in the post-war era. Not only did each of them, individually, have enormous flaws, but together they were deadly, dysfunctional" (November 3, 2006).

Adelman told the New Yorker's Jeffrey Goldberg that he initially began voicing his disappointment in summer 2006, using his perch as a member of the Defense Policy Board to push for a new strategy: "I suggested that we were losing the war. What was astonishing to me was the number of Iraqi professional people who were leaving the country. People were voting with their feet, and I said that it looked like we needed a Plan B. I said, 'What's the alternative? Because what we're doing now is just losing'" (November 20, 2006).

Then in fall 2006, Rumsfeld, an old friend of Adelman's since their days working together in the Nixon administration, called him to his office to ask him to resign from the board. According to what Adelman told the New Yorker: "[Rumsfeld] said, 'Ken, you've been my friend for most of my adult life,' and he said that I was going to be his friend for the rest of his life. Then he said, 'It might be best if you got off the Defense Policy Board' . [When] I had the floor . I started by saying what a positive influence he had been in my life, that I love him like a brother. He nodded, kind of sadly. And then I said, 'I'm negative about two things: the deflection of responsibility, and the quality of decisions.' He said he took responsibility all the time. Then I talked about two decisions: the way he handled the looting, and Abu Ghraib. He told me that he didn't remember saying, 'Stuff happens.' He was really in denial that this was his fault."

According to Adelman, the meeting ended inconclusively, and shortly before the midterm elections he received a letter from Rumsfeld. It read: "As we discussed when we met, we are moving ahead on the Defense Policy Board and we'll be naming a replacement for your spot in the next week or two. I appreciate your cooperation." According to the website of the Federal Advisory Committees Database, accessed by Right Web in mid-December 2006, Adelman's term on the Defense Policy Board expired on October 20, 2006. Yet that is not necessarily the case. As Goldberg put it, after Adelman got Rumsfeld's note, "A few days later, Rumsfeld was out. Adelman is, apparently, still in" (New Yorker, November 20, 2006).

Adelman has been involved in a number of key hardline policy efforts dating back to the 1970s, when he was a member of the original Committee on the Present Danger. More recently, he supported the pro-war lobbying campaign of the Project for the New American Century and is a member of the reincarnated Committee on the Present Danger, which was revived in June 2004 by a number of erstwhile Cold Warriors with the aim of "winning the global war against terrorism and the movements and ideologies that drive it."

Adelman's previous government experience includes working as an assistant to then-Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld under President Richard Nixon; serving as a deputy to Jeane Kirkpatrick when she was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; and serving as director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency during the Reagan administration.

Adelman has been active in the private sphere. He is executive director of USA for Innovation, an organization that works to protect U.S. trade and intellectual property rights, and is the national editor of the Washingtonian magazine. He is married to Carol Adelman, a project director at the conservative Hudson Institute, and together they run Movers and Shakespeares, a company that trains high-powered CEOs from firms like Northrop Grumman in management and communication strategies. According to People magazine: "The Adelmans have long looked to the Bard as an aid in navigating the labyrinths of politics, business, and family life . And since 1998 they have offered his wisdom to CEOs and bigwigs-to-be through their company Movers and Shakespeares. Their workshops-which last from 90 minutes to several days and cost from $4,000 to $18,000-are taught at such institutions as Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. The idea: to use the playwright's words to teach managerial skills. Each workshop ends with students donning Elizabethan garb to act out what they've learned. 'I've gotten more VIPs into tights and codpieces than anyone in this country,' says Carol" (People, March 11, 2002).

Ken Adelman is the author of the 1989 book The Great Universal Embrace, in which he criticized U.S.-Soviet arms control negotiations. In a 1990 review of the book, arms control expert Michael Krepon wrote: "Adelman cites Reagan's unshakable support for abolishing nuclear weapons, and chides his National Security Council colleagues for not trying to disabuse the president from what he considers to be a silly and dangerous notion. Others would add Reagan's cherished notions on strategic defenses, but on this score, Adelman continues to profess true belief . Adelman acknowledges the cynicism behind the Reagan administration's verification proposals (anywhere/anytime inspections without a right of refusal) for the draft treaty to abolish chemical weapons. 'This seemingly nifty approach,' he writes, 'had one slight problem-we could not live with it.' When the Soviets unexpectedly called the U.S. bluff, the administration had to 'search for other grounds for stalling.' Adelman promoted this treaty, which he opposed, because it was 'the only real way of enticing Congress to fund the chemical weapons program we needed.' The reasons for such candor are puzzling. Adelman is heavily implicated when he cites Shakespeare: 'What tangled webs we do weave when first we practice to deceive,' yet there is none of the master dramatist's sense of reckoning or balancing of accounts. Presumably, it is harmless to advance unacceptable proposals as long as arms reduction agreements are avoided" (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/August 1990).

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David Rose, "Neo Culpa," Vanity Fair, November 3, 2006.

Joshua Muravchick, "The FP Memo: Urgent: Operation Comeback," Foreign Policy, November/December 2006.

Ken Adelman, "Don't Change Course Now," USA Today, March 13, 2004.

Jeffrey Goldberg, "End of the Affair," New Yorker, Novebmer 20, 2006.

Movers and Shakespeares, http://www.moversandshakespeares.com/.

USA for Innovation, http://www.usaforinnovation.org.

Federal Advisory Committees Database, http://www.fido.gov/facadatabase/default.asp.

Kenneth Adelman, "The Ankle Biters," July 10, 2002, FoxNews.com, www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,57290,00.html.

Ken Adelman, "Cakewalk in Iraq," Washington Post, February 13, 2002, p. A27, www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A1996-2002Feb12?language=printer.

Mike Allen and Dana Milbank, "Question of the Day Dogs Administration Officials," Washington Post, March 23, 2003, p. A27, www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A12217-2003Mar22.

James Morrison, "Embassy Row: Congo Complaint," Washington Times, June 5, 2006, www.washingtontimes.com/world/20060604-103046-3303r.htm.

Michael Krepon, "Two Spins on Arms Control a la Reagan," review of Kenneth Adelman's The Great Universal Embrace, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July/August 1990.

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