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Danielle Pletka established herself as a foreign policy hawk while working as a reporter for Insight Magazine during the George H.W. Bush administration, and later as a member of the professional staff for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the Clinton administration, serving as the committee's Middle East specialist. In 2002, when some 20 associates of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) joined the George W. Bush administration, Pletka moved from her government position to AEI, where she is vice president for foreign and defense policy studies.

Most recently, in late 2006 Pletka was involved with the creation of AEI's "Iraq Planning Group," a panel led by AEI scholar Frederick Kagan and Gen. Jack Keane. On January 5, 2007, the group released a report that recommended, among other suggestions, that at least 50,000 more U.S. troops be sent to Iraq.

Introducing Kagan at an AEI event marking the publication of the planning group's first report, Pletka repeated the new mantra of the hardline right-wing, that the United States must stay in Iraq until "victory" is achieved: "Like the war, hate the war, believe in it or not, America is now in Iraq, and we must win. It is as simple as that, because the price of failure is not ignominy for George W. Bush or egg on the face of Dick Cheney, it is the victory of terrorists and their sponsors and the creation of a national homeland for extremists bent on killing Americans" (AEI, January 5, 2007).

The goal of the AEI planning group was to determine how Washington might emerge from Iraq with a win: "The suggestion that victory was unachievable was dismissed from the outset. The idea that the world's greatest economic, political, and military force with more than a million men and women under arms can be trounced by the likes of al-Qaida in Iraq and Iranian-sponsored Shiite fire breathers is ridiculous. We can lose only if we choose to do so," Pletka said.

Kagan, who penned the AEI planning group's report, "Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq," began his speech at the event by highlighting Pletka's role. "It was very fortunate for me to be at an organization where, when this idea [for the planning group] was developed-and it was actually Dani's idea, she does not take public credit for it, but she should-when an idea like this came up we could react rapidly, pull this group together and make this happen," Kagan said. He then elaborated on the AEI proposal to send tens of thousands more U.S. troops to Iraq. Later at the same event, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) also spoke in favor of staying in Iraq.

Pletka gained a reputation as an influential player in shaping U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East while working with Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) and the Senate Intelligence Committee. At AEI, Pletka has chaired numerous conferences on "rebuilding post-Saddam Iraq" and democratization in the Arab world.

One of the most prominent AEI voices on foreign policy, Pletka has associated herself with the neoconservative camp. (In May 2004, she told a Washington Post reporter: "I think the phrase 'neocon' is much more popular among people who think it shields their anti-Semitism. But it doesn't.") In 2002 and 2003 Pletka signed two letters to President George W. Bush (on Hong Kong and military budget) and two statements (on post-war Iraq) produced by the neoconservative Project for the New American Century (PNAC). She was one of a small group of prominent supporters of the now-defunct Coalition for Democracy in Iran, a group that operated out of the office of Morris Amitay. Pletka is a member of the Committee on the Present Danger, which in its latest reincarnation commits itself on the side of the "free world" in a world war against Islamic terrorism.

Pletka also lists NGO Watch as one of her AEI research projects. A joint AEI-Federalist Society venture, NGO Watch claims to be a watchdog "highlighting issues of transparency and accountability in the operations of nongovernmental organizations and international organizations." Yet according to Public Eye, the magazine of the progressive think tank Public Research Associates: "NGO Watch is a clear example of a right-wing campaign designed to monitor and critique 'liberal' UN-designated NGOs . NGO Watch attacks those NGOs that organize and mobilize public opinion and advocate for 'liberal' causes" (Public Eye, Spring 2004).

Pletka's colleagues at AEI include some of the country's most prominent neoconservatives: Thomas Donnelly, David Frum, Reuel Gerecht, Irving Kristol, Michael Ledeen, Joshua Muravchik, Michael Novak, Richard Perle, Michael Rubin, Gary Schmitt, and Ben Wattenberg. Also among AEI's ranks are Vice President Dick Cheney's wife Lynne Cheney, Newt Gingrich, and Roger Noriega.

While supportive of the Bush administration's war on terrorism rhetoric, Pletka believes that the U.S. government has not done all that it could to fight the "present danger." According to Pletka, "[T]he commitment of the enemy is hardly matched by the commitment of the United States to counter him. True, the United States is engaged in Iraq. Yes, an unprecedented effort has gone into public diplomacy. But how does the West combat Islamic extremism? U.S. officials confronted with the question hem and haw uncomfortably. They mention the 'freedom agenda' and the spread of democracy; and while democracy is indeed the long-term solution to the problem of radical Islam and the appeal of Islamic extremist groups, the problem faces us now. A short-term solution is needed to partner with the long term one" (AEI, December 22, 2005).

In October 2005, Pletka wrote that the Bush administration was not fully committing itself to the war on terrorism and the promotion of democracy in the Middle East. "The Bush revolution has indeed lost its energy," she wrote. "The evidence is widespread and disturbing. Whether on the question of Iranian nuclear proliferation, Iraqi constitution-building, or Libyan dictatorship, the rhetoric retains its ring, but it does not resonate through the Department of State, let alone through the region" (AEI, October 7, 2005).

The CIA, along with the State Department, has come under repeated attack by Pletka. "There are challenges ahead in Iran, North Korea, China, and in the war on terror," warned Pletka in February 2006. "No matter how those issues play out, the American people should be certain that their democratically elected leaders are making decisions based on unbiased intelligence. They won't get that from today's CIA" (Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2006).

An advocate of the Iraq War, Pletka has been a longtime supporter of Ahmed Chalabi, the chairman of Iraqi National Congress, a U.S.-financed organization that worked closely with the Bush foreign policy team in making the case for the U.S. invasion. When the U.S. government began distancing itself from Chalabi, Pletka rose to his defense. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Pletka called the U.S. government "a faithless friend" and concluded that Washington's agencies, namely the CIA and the State Department, were "more concerned with carrying out vendettas than with pursuing the real enemies of the United States." According to Pletka, Chalabi was one of the "all too few Iraqis who were willing to risk life and limb to topple Hussein; and there were even fewer who believed in Western democratic values" (Los Angeles Times, June 4, 2004).

With respect to Iran, Pletka (and other AEI scholars) regularly denounces those who propose diplomatic engagement. "Any opening from the United States will only lend credibility to that government and forever dash the hopes of a population that, according to reliable polls, despises its own leadership," she argued in a Los Angeles Times op-ed. "We have seen that engagement with the current leadership of Iran would not achieve policy change; all it would do is buy an evil regime the time it needs to perfect its nuclear weapons and to build a network of terrorists to deliver them" (Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2004). In September 2006, Pletka made it clear that she would support military action to prevent a nuclear-capable Iran: "We have talked about talking for long enough; there must be other options. If those options are unavailable to those most threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran (that is, the American people), then the likelihood of war becomes ever greater. It is not wise to force America into a choice between doing nothing and doing everything. But it may come to that" (AEI, September 7, 2006).

Pletka also echoes a hardline neocon position on Saudi Arabia. "The United States remains oddly reluctant to fight Islamic extremism at one of its most important sources: Saudi Arabia," she wrote in December 2005 (AEI, December 22, 2005).

Pletka advocates a more aggressive "regime change" foreign policy along the lines described by her AEI colleagues Perle and Frum in their book, An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror. "The political prescriptions contained are terrific," Pletka told the Jewish magazine Forward. "This is a very thoughtful articulation of how to fight the battle ahead of us." Among the policy prescriptions offered by Perle and Frum are, according to the Forward, universal biometric fingerprinting, immediate steps to bring about regime change in Iran and Syria, a military blockade of North Korea, a diplomatic approach that treats Saudi Arabia and France as rivals if not "enemies," and decreased U.S. involvement in the United Nations (Forward, January 9, 2004).

Regime change in the Middle East doesn't necessarily require U.S. military action but rather U.S. support for revolution, according to Pletka and other AEI analysts. While at AEI, Pletka has worked closely with congressional representatives, notably Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), to pass resolutions supporting democracy in Iran. At an AEI forum on Iran, Brownback was introduced by Pletka as "an activist" and "a true believer" (American Conservative, March 27, 2006).

Pletka maintains that torture is a distasteful but acceptable practice in the war against terrorism. "I'm not a big fan of torture. Unfortunately, there are times in war when it is necessary to do things in a way that is absolutely and completely abhorrent to most good, decent people," she told the BBC. "If it is absolutely imperative to find something out at that moment, then it is imperative to find something out at that moment, and Club Med is not the place to do it" (BBC News, June 14, 2005).

Although the neoconservative camp has lost some of its most prominent players inside government-notably Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith-AEI, with its team of neoconservatives and fellow travelers like Danielle Pletka, has stepped up its pressure on the Bush administration to stay true to a foreign policy that has regime change, preventive war, and U.S. supremacy as core features of U.S. national security doctrine.

Please note: IPS Right Web neither represents nor endorses any of the individuals or groups profiled on this site.