Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz’s classified Defense Planning Guidance (DPG), was released on February 18, 1992. “Written just after the demise of the Soviet Union…the DPG asserted that America’s goal should be to ‘prevent the reemergence of a new rival’ to U.S. supremacy as the lone global superpower. The document made it clear that one of the most vital regions in the world strategically was the Middle East because of its vast oil reserves: ‘In the Middle East and Southwest Asia, our overall objective is to remain the predominant outside power in the region and preserve U.S. and Western access to the region’s oil.’ To achieve America’s new objectives, however, Wolfowitz and company decided it was necessary to rewrite the long-standing rules of engagement under which the United States might take military action, employing stratagems that violated the most sacred principles of American foreign policy.”
– Craig Unger, The Fall of the House of Bush, Page 116