Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century ( A Report of The Project for the New American Century Sept2000) [PDF]

Some choice posts from Sept 2000 (a year before 9/11)...

Though the immediate mission of those forces is to enforce the no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq, they represent the long-term commitment of the United States and its major allies to a region of vital importance. Indeed, the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf ranscends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.