Origins of Regime Change in Iraq

Please run these in order; this is #2. And if you can run a “SPECIAL WARTIME EDITION” kicker over the “In the Mix” nameplate, that would be much appreciated. For art, use screen grabs

As with any conflict, there’s a back story to the Iraq war. This Web page, which appears on the site of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, gives a thumbnail sketch of what happened after some conservative intellectuals in the first George Bush’s administration got frustrated with what they thought was a premature ending to that war. After Bill Clinton sent them back to privately funded think tanks, these people—names familiar to any current news addict, such as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Donald Rumsfeld—plotted an invasion of Iraq as the first step in establishing a base from which to project power and depose regimes throughout the Middle East. Some of their ideas can be found at the Project for a New American Century Web site (www.newamericancentury.org). Too bad these dreams of an empire weren’t discussed openly before the 2000 election—or before bombs started dropping.