Never before in the history of the United States presidency has a think tank had such an impact on shaping U.S. foreign policy as the Project for the New American Century has on helping President George W. Bush set foreign policy goals for his Administration, particularly dictating exactly how Bush should deal with Iraq and its President, Saddam Hussein.

For the past six years, PNAC has lobbied former President Clinton and Bush heavily to initiate a war in Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power, claiming the country poses a serious threat to the U.S. and its allies because of its ability to develop weapons of mass destruction. Clinton rebuffed the advice by PNAC members during the last four years of his presidency, but Bush has virtually used, word for word, the written statements by PNAC members when he speaks publicly about Iraq crisis.

AUSTIN, Texas -- When we need a laugh in grim times, we count on our Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Whoopi Goldberg of the Bush administration. This week, Ashcroft took time off from tracking down terrorists in order to bust 55 people for selling for selling rolling papers, pipes and other drug paraphernalia. Nice to see a man who's got his priorities straight.

Onward. Let's review the bidding on North Korea. "Review the bidding" is a bridge term for "how the hell did we get into this mess?" In 1994, the Clinton administration came to something called the Agreed Framework with North Korea, under which Pyongyang agreed to put its 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods -- which can be easily converted into weapons-grade plutonium -- into storage, watched over by U.N. inspectors and cameras. In return, they were supposed to get two light-water nuclear reactors and economic and diplomatic relations.

As I write this it seems all but inevitable that war will be coming to your country in a matter of weeks. The Turkish government has agreed to host U.S. troops (despite 90% of the population objecting), in Eastern Turkey which will means the U.S. generals have gotten their coveted two-front war.

Between the obvious repression of free speech in your country and the U.S. media's unwillingness to dig for popular Iraqi sentiment, we in America know little about how you feel concerning a U.S. invasion-we can only guess that you are terrified now and busy planning for the survival of your family.

We know that you have been oppressed and brutalized by Saddam Hussein and his tyrants, and that your hatred for him has never been in question, but whether you want Americans to invade your country, topple the government, occupy the nation and manufacture a new regime for you based largely on what U.S. officials consider appropriate, remains to be seen.

Although the Bush administration says its coming war will be directed against Saddam Hussein and his military supporters only, you know as well as I, that

"We have money to blow up bridges over the Tigress and Euphrates and we don't have money to build bridges in our major cities. We have money to destroy the health of the Iraqi people and we don't have enough money to repair the health of our own people in this country. There is something fundamentally wrong with the direction this administration is taking its foreign policy, and I intend to change that if I am elected president of the United States."

For the past six years, the American Gulf War Veterans Association have received numerous reports from veterans stating that US forces were responsible for the setting of the oil well fires at the end of the Gulf War. These testimonies are now being taken very seriously in light of recent revelations of the events that occurred during the first Gulf War.

Joyce Riley, spokesperson for The American Gulf War Veterans Association is quoted as saying: There was intentional misinformation given to the American people to generate support for Desert Storm often created by advertising agencies such as Hill and Knowlton.

* Revelations regarding the Incubator story, in which Republican Guard were reported to have thrown babies out of their incubators onto the cold floor turned out to be false and a fraud on the American People. (S.R. 103-900).

* The St. Petersburg Times disproved the report of satellite photos showing a thousand Iraqi tanks amassing on the Saudi border.

* April Glaspie, US Ambassador, gave tacit approval to Saddam Hussein to