Regarding Iraq, the writer was perhaps referring to Zoellick's association with the Project for the New American Century, a conservative think tank. In 1998, Zoellick was among the PNAC members who signed a letter urging President Bill Clinton to remove then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from power because of an assumption that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Donald Rumsfeld was also among the cosigners and later, as Bush's secretary of defense, led the invasion of Iraq.