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>>I can't change what people think about the US and its decisions, but beleive me there is not a conspiracy behind every decision made by president Bush. Let me ask you this, did you think that there was a hidden adgenda behind every Clinton decision?
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>Yes, I believe that President Clinton also had hidden objectives in his decisions. The difference is, they at least paid some lip service to the "average Joe". President Bush has only corporations and the rich in his ECONOMIC objectives, applying yet again that infamous theory of President Reagan's about "trickle-down benefits" which was proved not to work.
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Hi Jim,

Nightline had a couple of very useful shows last week - on Wednesday's show, they did a profile of a "think-tank" type group that they stated had gained a great deal of influence with the Bush government - the "Project for the New American Century" - http://www.newamericancentury.org/index.html . The Statement of Priciples is signed by some current Conservative notables (some not!), including Cheney and Rumsfeld. If you check the section on Iraq/Middle East, there is a pointer to the book
"The War Over Iraq: Saddam's Tyranny and America's Mission", by Lawrence F. Kaplan and William Kristol (Encounter Books, 2003). That further links to the bookstore, which has the intro to the book online: http://www.encounterbooks.com/books/wair/wair_intro.html .
I think it's likely that this book has the much of the answers concerning the Bush government's current and long term strategy. The longterm approach described goes much beyond the stated aim of regime change, restoring democracy to and securing the region, or maybe I'm reading too much into the intro. Will find out when I get the book - should be interesting.