Citing Iraq 'victory,' PNAC may close

Conservative think tank eyes closing after 'mission accomplished' in Iraq

RAW STORYPublished: Monday June 12, 2006

A neoconservative think tank co-founded by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Jeb Bush, Paul Wolfowitz and "Scooter" Libby, that long pushed for regime change in Iraq, is readying to close its doors with a feeling of "mission accomplished," according to today's Washington Post.
Excerpts from the Post story follow:
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PNAC and its supporters dominated the Bush administration's foreign policy apparatus and championed a policy to get rid of Saddam Hussein long before Sept. 11, 2001.

In its famous 1998 letter to President Bill Clinton , PNAC said "removing Saddam Hussein and his regime . . . now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy." Clinton was urged to use all diplomatic, political and military means to topple him.

Despite the happy chatter before the Iraq invasion about cheering crowds and bouquets and cakewalks and how the war was going to pay for itself, the signatories wrote that "we are fully aware of the dangers of implementing this policy."

There had been debate about PNAC's future, but the feeling, a source said, was of "goal accomplished" and it looks to be heading toward closing. Former executive director Gary J. Schmitt , who had been executive director of President Ronald Reagan 's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, left recently for a post at the American Enterprise Institute. (Not a big move. Actually, only five floors up from PNAC.) Still, seems like a short century.
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The full story can be found here.