dudabides, et al. You seem to be under the impression that Bush and Cheney laboriously poured over intelligence reports after 9/11, trying to solve the issue of global terror, and after much deliberation decided "Well, it may not be popular, but unfortunately it looks like we're going to have to invade Iraq unless Saddam is willing to give up his weapons or allow for full inspections."
No. Cheney and his allies, particularly Paul Wolfowitz, went into office with invading Iraq as a
goal to secure Bush's legacy as a crusader for democracy, to finish the work of 1991, and most importantly, allow American energy companies to get their oil from Iraq.
They didn't choose to invade Iraq based on evidence. They wanted to invade Iraq and then created evidence to justify this goal. Take this memo from Rumsfeld to Central Command chief Tommy Franks two months after 9/11, for example:
Where have I head that third point before?
If you want more context, here's the full document:
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB326/doc08.pdf
