Familiar names

[we advocate] . ..the spread of democratic forms of government and open economic systems. . . our overall objective is to remain the predominant outside power in the region and preserve U.S. and Western access to the region's oil."
from the Defense Planning Guidance, 1992, of which Paul Wolfowitz was an architect.

The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) was founded in 1997 by Robert Kagan (erstwhile Wilsonian Democrat who believed the lesson learned in Vietnam was not to withdraw from the world, but to promote American values and democracy hegemonically throughout the world) and William Kristol. Early members included Donald Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. (Sound familiar?) They signed a document recommending to President Clinton that a change of regime was needed in Iraq. Iraq had been on the mind of Wolfowitz as early as the late 70's when he was an official in the Carter administration. He authored the Limited Contingency Study that argued for an invasion of Iraq to seize and thus control the oil fields of Iraq. And who said oil had nothing to do with the invasion? How convenient was 9/11 for these folks to provide the justification for what they had always wanted to do anyway.