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The Big Picture -
Iraq is just the beginning. Here's some evidence of the larger agenda.

PEOPLE
	George Bush Jnr	" The American flag stands for more than our power and our interests. Our Founders dedicated this country to the cause of human dignity—the rights of every person and the possibilities of every life. This conviction leads us into the world to help the afflicted, and defend the peace, and confound the designs of evil men." President George Bush Jnr, State of the Union speech, 2003, at the Atlantic Monthly (with translation)
	richard perle	" If we destroy the Taliban in Afghanistan, and I’m confident we will, and we then go on to destroy the regime of Saddam Hussein, and we certainly could if we chose to do so, I think we would have an impressive case to make to the Syrians, the Somalis and others. We could deliver a short message, a two-word message: “You're next. You're next unless you stop the practice of supporting terrorism.” Given the fact that until now there has been no cost attached to supporting terror, I think there’s a reasonable prospect that looking at the costs on the one side— that is, that those regimes will be brought to an end— and the benefits on the other— they will decide to get out of the terrorist business. It seems to me a reasonable gamble in any event." Richard Perle, October 2001
GROUPS
	bush administration	"the administration sees the invasion as only the first move in a wider effort to reorder the power structure of the entire Middle East." Joshua Marshall, Washington Monthly, March 31, 2003
COMMENTATORS
	Joel Belz	" We tend in our time to be discouraged about the challenge of "nation building" because of a few notable failures. We get scared off because of the muddled end (and failure) in Vietnam. But if Vietnam has any enduring lesson, it is that we should have pursued our original goal there to the end... Before it's all over, we may also need to remember that lesson in Iraq. Nation building is rarely a quick task. But it can be very rewarding. I'm glad for some optimists in high places who recognize it." Joel Belz, World Magazine (christian publication: "helps readers think biblically about the world around them" ), April 5, 2003
ISSUES
	democracy in the middle east	But the concepts of individual liberty, representative democracy and market economies will take hold within Middle Eastern nations, just as they did in post-Soviet Eastern Europe. Or at least that is the unstated, long-term hope of the Bush administration. Pete du Pont, Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2002 (at www.likud.nl)
	Islamic Fundamentalism	"In taking on Saddam Hussein, there is a broader agenda, something of more lasting significance than eliminating the immediate threat posed by his weapons of mass destruction. America's long-term goal is to change the dynamics of the Middle East, the most dangerous region in the world today... The fundamentalist and authoritarian cultures of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority are a serious danger -- not greater than Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia in their time perhaps, but the greatest challenge to the peace and prosperity of the world community today..." Pete du Pont, Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2002 (at www.likud.nl) Pete du Pont is a former Governor of Delaware and is s policy chairman of the Dallas-based National Center for Policy Analysis.

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