Obama continuing Bush, neocon policies in Mideast: Pundit

US President Barack Obama has pursued some of the same policies of the neoconservative Zionists in the George W. Bush administration that were carried out in the Middle East, an American activist and radio host in California says.

Obama, for the most part, has continued the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which promoted neocon and Israeli objectives in the Middle East, said Rodney Martin, who served for a time on the staff of a US congressman.

“Republicans and the Democrats have a lot of blood on their hands when it comes to all things [in the] Middle East,” Martin told Press TV on Sunday.

PNAC was a neoconservative think tank based in Washington, DC that was founded in 1997 and dissolved in 2006.

Observers have suggested that the PNAC played a key role in shaping the foreign policy of the Bush administration, particularly in building support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

“When it came to Iraq, both of them wanted to be hawks; when it came to anything that had to do with the Middle East, they were both basically jockeying to be the greatest hawk and the greatest top dog in an illegal war and an illegal campaign to destabilize Middle Eastern governments,” Martin added.

He made the comments in response to a question about the newly disclosed US memos that reveal former British Prime Minister Tony Blair backed Bush's plan for the Iraq war a year before the invasion started.

The document, titled “Secret... Memorandum for the President”, was sent by then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell to Bush on March 28, 2002, a week before Bush’s summit with Blair at his Crawford ranch in Texas, Britain’s Daily Mail reported on Sunday.

In it, Powell tells Bush that Blair "will be with us" on military action and "the UK will follow our lead in the Middle East."

Blair has always denied the claim that he and Bush signed a deal “in blood” at Crawford to launch a war against Iraq that began on March 20, 2003.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk