Bush; An Oral History
Vanith Fair has an enlightening history of the Bush administration from the mouths of people who were present. It paints a horrifying picture of hubris. There are many quotes and the piece should be read in full, but here's the genesis of Iraq
Richard Clarke: That night, on 9/11, Rumsfeld came over and the others, and the president finally got back, and we had a meeting. And Rumsfeld said, You know, we’ve got to do Iraq, and everyone looked at him—at least I looked at him and Powell looked at him—like, What the hell are you talking about? And he said—I’ll never forget this—There just aren’t enough targets in Afghanistan. We need to bomb something else to prove that we’re, you know, big and strong and not going to be pushed around by these kind of attacks.
And I made the point certainly that night, and I think Powell acknowledged it, that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. That didn’t seem to faze Rumsfeld in the least.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It really didn’t, because from the first weeks of the administration they were talking about Iraq. I just found it a little disgusting that they were talking about it while the bodies were still burning in the Pentagon and at the World Trade Center.
... June 1, 2002 In a graduation speech at West Point, Bush advances a new strategic doctrine of pre-emption, stating that the United States reserves the right to use force to deal with threats before they “fully materialize.” Preparations for war with Iraq are not yet publicly acknowledged, but earlier in the spring, as Condoleezza Rice discusses diplomatic initiatives involving Iraq with several senators, Bush pokes his head into the room and says, “Fuck Saddam. We’re taking him out.”
The sad thing is, that's no
The sad thing is, that's no longer surprising.
This was Michael Portillo's
This was Michael Portillo's justification for invading Iraq at the time, and David Aaronovitch's recent article in The Times is more or less saying this when he talks about showing to the jihadists that the international community is resolute. Back in February 2003 there was an exchange between IDS and Blair in the House of Commons in which IDS said that the fact that troops had been sent to guard Heathrow Airport showed why we had to invade Iraq, and Blair agreed: they weren't saying that Iraq had anything to do with the terrorist threat, but that we should invade Iraq just to show the terrorists that we meant business.
This isn't just an immoral way of thinking, it is a very stupid one. Osama bin Laden is probably very pleased: it illustrates nicely his point about the arrogance of the West.