Just wondering if anyone knows anything about the Council on Forgien Relations and the Trilateral Commission. I wonder how much they've influenced the U.S. to go to war with Iraq. If anyone wants to discuss what they think organizations such as these and the bilderbergers feel free.

The Trilateral Commission, CFR, the Bilderberg Group, along with the "Illuminati" and the "Free Masons" are often implicated by conspiracy theorists as groups that have and currently are implementing plots to shape and re-shape American government. "Conspiracy theorist" isn't a dirty term, by the way, but I tend to think that they remain "theorists" because their "theories" never materialize into "facts".

I'm sure a Google search on any of the above-mentioned groups would yield a plethora of interesting (though possibly kooky) results.

I prefer to deal with political phenomena that I can verify with my sense of reason - for instance, in my view it is clearly obvious that America's foreign policy in the Mid East has two aims: 1) Secure as much oil as possible, and 2) Ensure the survival of the state of Israel.

I do not hold any of the above-mentioned groups responsible for these goals. I just haven't seen any evidence for it.

Here's an interesting note: many members of Bush's administration belong to a "conservative think-tank" group called the Project for A New American Century. In 1997, they authored and signed a document which called for American hegemony and extended influence in the Mid East.

Here we are in 2003, and their plan is being implemented.

They also speculated that this hegemony had small likelihood of implementation without a pearl harbour like catalyst.

And then 9/11.