Why Bush Took Us to War in Iraq

Here are some commonly cited reasons why Bush took us to war in Iraq and the evidence for them now.

1. Eliminate Weapons of Mass Destruction -- Even Bush is telling jokes about this now.

2. Keep Saddam from Aiding Terrorists -- Bush openly admits that Saddam had no connection to the 9/11 terror.

3. Promote Democracy and Freedom in Iraq -- Let's see, we are putting Saddam's generals back in power, humiliating and torturing civilian prisoners, declaring Iraqi sovereignty to some unknown American-selected group, closing newspapers and increasing American troops in country  . . .

4. Create a U.S. Empire -- Before they took power in 2001, prominent administration officials published the Program for a New American Century promoting the Bush foreign policy of U.S. imperial power

5. Conduct a Crusade of Christians Against Islam -- An unnamed Bush relative has been quoted as saying that W. sees the war on terror "as a religious war": "He doesn't have a P.C. view of this war. His view of this is that they are trying to kill the Christians. And we the Christians will strike back with more force and more ferocity than they will ever know."

6. Get Iraqi Oil -- Cheney, the former Halliburton CIO, has siphoned a fortune to his oil drilling friends who now control Iraqi oil, but much more significant is the $6 Trillion of oil in the Caspian Sea.  READ "It's the Oil Stupid!"

1.  Civil War and Sectarian Strife

1.  Civil War and Sectarian Strife

The toppling of the Saddam Hussein regime in April 2003 ended an era in which Iraqi sectarian, religious, tribal, regional, and other differences were contained and manipulated (but not always suppressed) against a background of unyielding tyranny. Saddam's strategy for rule included numerous circumstances of manipulating ethnic and tribal loyalties, although repression was always his ultimate fallback position to control the population.2 The future of Iraq is now uncertain, as the country must address its internal difficulties in ways that are entirely different from those of the Saddam regime. . . Serious ethno-religious conflict and especially a full-scale civil war in post- Saddam Iraq would present the United States, the West, and the region with a variety of severe strategic problems. Such an outcome is only one of Iraq's potential futures, but a number of key observers have noted that such an Iraqi civil war is at least possible. United Nations (UN) Ambassador Brahimi has warned of this danger, while various academic and research organizations have expressed similar fears.³ Some U.S. journalistic sources, citing what they describe as leaked documents, also suggest that the U.S. CIA is concerned about the danger of an Iraqi civil war.4 Indeed, public opinion data also indicates that many Iraqis are concerned over the possibility of a civil war in the post-Saddam era, while some foreign Arab leaders have expressed similar concerns.⁵ Obviously, the danger of civil war is particularly pressing for the United States. . . W. Andrew Terrill,  The U.S. Army, Professional Writing Collection, Strategic Implications of Intercommunal Warfare in Iraq  MORE

How Neoconservatives Conquered Washington – and Launched a War
by Michael Lind, April 10, 2003 MORE

Iraq: The Bush Occupation - Page 1 of 2 (News about Iraq)