Chenney's War.
Bush wanted Bin Laden,
Neoconservatives wanted Iraq.
When elected, Bush was opposed to "nation building," but Dick Cheney brought in eight fellow neocons who advocated "regime change" and re-building Iraq. This was before 9/11 and had nothing to do with Bush's war on terrorism.
Cheney's group all belonged to IASPS or PNAC. IASPS advocated regime change to increase Israeli security, while PNAC focused on our Middle East allies but named only Israel. Using 9/11, Cheney and friends convinced Bush to go against the long-standing conservative principles he held when elected.
The War Was a Major Neocon Project Well Before 9/11
(And no other group was proposing it.)
The neocons managed to get nine of their key people into the Bush Administration and they became the top nine architects of, and advocates for, the Iraq invasion. Without 9/11 they probably would not have succeeded, but by then they had published the strategy for the war and were perfectly positioned and well prepared to take advantage of it. Here's how they did it.
In 1996 a group of neocon policy analysts wrote a report on why the removal of Saddam was crucial to Israel and delivered it in person to the new Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu. Three of these became key proponents of the war in the Bush Administration.
In 1997 the neocons started PNAC, a foreign policy project, with a key objective of toppling Saddam. It included Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz as founders, as well as Richard Perle (who delivered the 1996 report to Netanyahu) as a prominent member.
In 1998, PNAC wrote an open letter to Clinton advocating Saddam’s removal by force. It was signed by Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Perle. Before 9/11, PNAC was publishing strategy proposals for the invasion which explained the psychology behind the “Shock and Awe” campaign used to open the war.
A week after 9/11 Rumsfeld called a meeting which published a letter proposing to invade Iraq even if it was not linked to 9/11. The letter focused mainly on Israel’s security needs and very little on Bin Laden. This is still available on the PNAC web site.
All that remained was to convince Bush, and they had him surrounded.
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The Neocons and their Interconnections
PNAC: Project for the New American Century. William Kristol, chairman.
Has such close ties with Rumsfeld's Defense Policy Board that when Rumsfeld
convened the Board a week after 9/11, PNAC published the letter
they drafted. See above.
IASPS: Institute for Advanced Strategic & Political Studies.
"www.iasps.org/about.htm::A Jerusalem-based think tank with an affiliated office in Washington, D.C."
William Kristol: Co-founder and chairman of PNAC. Son of neoconservative “godfather” Irving Kristol and editor of the neocon publication “The Weekly standard.”
Norman Podhoretz: Signer of PNAC Principles. Mentored by Irving Kristol. From 1960 to 1995, Editor-in-Chief of Commentary, the monthly publication of the American Jewish Committee, and a leading neocon publication.
1. Dick Cheney: Vice President.
2. Donald Rumsfeld: Secretary of Defense.
3. Paul Wolfowitz: Deputy Secretary of Defense until 2005.
4. Richard Perle: Chairman of Rumsfeld’s Defense Policy Board until 2003.
5. Douglas Feith: Undersecretary of Defense for Policy until 2005.
6. I. Lewis Libby: Dick Cheney's chief of staff.
7. David Wurmser: Middle East Adviser to Dick Cheney.
8. Elliot Abrams: National Security Adviser, Rep. for Middle Eastern Affairs
9. John Bolton: Undersecretary of State.
Charles Fairbanks: Deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of State for Bush I where he served under Paul Wolfowitz, a college friend. source
The above 9 are listed in approximate order of their contribution to selling the Iraq War, but others from PNAC were also appointed to the administration.
So as you can see, the liberals are ludacris to weigh thier hatred on president Bush, who they should be pissed off at is Dick Chenney. SpellJammer never liked him..