PNAC Planned World Domination for the United States

The Project for the New American Century or PNAC was a neoconservative think tank that was formed in 1997 and based in Washington. The group aimed to promote the dominance of the United States over the rest of the world by strengthening the military, attacking unfriendly regimes and securing an international order which would guarantee the security and financial success of the country.

One of their main public issues was their desire to bring about a regime change in Iraq. They drafted an open letter to President Clinton – which was posted on their website – demanding that he remove Saddam Hussein from power. The letter was signed by men who went on to be major players in the Bush administration, including Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Robert Zoellick.

In 2000, the PNAC released a report entitled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategies, Forces, and Resources for a New Century”. The report advocated the expansion of US influence throughout the world – via military superiority and an aggressive foreign policy that would promote and protect US interests. Their aim was to drastically increase military spending to increase the size of the army, maintain nuclear superiority and reposition troops to places where the US had “strategic concerns”. The report also talks of invading Iraq and Iran and winning “multiple, simultaneous major theater wars”.

The PNAC is no conspiracy theory. This was a real organisation with documented aims and members. The theorists have highlighted the group because they had exerted a frightening influence over the Bush regime and because their stated aims seemed to coincide with the actions of Bush’s government. In fact, many of the members of the PNAC went on to hold key positions of influence and were able to make their plans a reality. When Bush was elected, he employed a number of the PNAC’s signatories in his Government. This list of members is a long one, and includes Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, Elliot Abrams, Lewis “Scooter” Libby and Richard Perle to name a few.

The conspiracy theory focuses on the idea that these neoconservatives were able to carry out their plans by subverting the “war on terror” in the aftermath of the September 11 th attacks. The men behind the PNAC used the “war on terror” as an excuse to promote their policies – despite the fact that Iraq was not linked directly to the attacks and posed no real threat to the US.

While some theorists went as far as to suggest there was an imperialist agenda at work that sought to cement American hegemony over the world, others have focused on their determination to push military strategies over diplomatic approaches and what has been described as their idealisation of war. As conspiracy theories go, this one has more proof than most. There can also be no denying that the plans to invade Iraq and increase military spending were drafted well before Bush took power - and put into action as soon as he took charge in the White House.