There are a number of reasons for the U.S. invasion of Iraq (oil, domestic politics), but the influence of the Israel lobby (AIPAC) on U.S. Iraq policy particularly over key neocon figures, who were at the center of promoting this war, can no longer be dismissed.
According to UPI:
"Two of America's top scholars have published a searing attack on the role and power of Washington's pro-Israel lobby in a British journal, warning that its 'decisive' role in fomenting the Iraq war is now being repeated with the threat of action against Iran. And they say that the Lobby is so strong that they doubt their article would be accepted in any U.S.-based publication.
"Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, author of The Tragedy of Great Power Politics and Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard's Kenney School, and author of Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy, are leading figures American in academic life.
"They claim that the Israel lobby has distorted American policy and operates against American interests, that it has organized the funneling of more than $140 billion dollars to Israel and 'has a stranglehold' on the U.S. Congress, and its ability to raise large campaign funds gives its vast influence over Republican and Democratic administrations, while its role in Washington think tanks on the Middle East dominates the policy debate.
"And they say that the Lobby works ruthlessly to suppress questioning of its role, to blacken its critics and to crush serious debate about the wisdom of supporting Israel in U.S. public life."
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