What are we doing in Iraq?

[Flint]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Well, it's been out in the open on the PNAC website since Clinton was in office, and the PNAC members populated Bush's administration extensively. But they never explicitly acknowledged it, AFAIK. Possibly in part due to Bush's campaign derision of "nation building".

So instead we're bungling through a war that people don't support because it hasn't been explained to them - and this is because we were ashamed to admit our real reasons? That's fucking insane. I've been saying all along: just tell us what the reasons are! We already know, just say it out loud!

Originally Posted by glatt

In hindsight we can maybe connect the dots a bit, but at the time the nation was headed for war, I don't recall a single person talking about building a pro-democracy country in the middle of the region as a base for our troops.

I was. More than "a single person" was talking about it. PNAC has some very high-profile members, and they are not the slightest bit secretive.