Well, that's me told. Gosh oh golly gee.

@LordShadowfire Iraq was sorta a square peg, round hole type of situation with Afghanistan; it wasn't a good pretext on Bush's end because Hussein wasn't actually working with Al-Qaeda. Granted, it didn't really need to be a good pretext for Bush to use it as such, but by that standard you could characterize basically any act of aggression as playing right into Bush's hands.

@BlueVeins So you're saying it was more that Bush was ready to attack on the slightest pretense. Not saying you're wrong, mind you. I just think there was more to it.

@LordShadowfire From what I've read of the situation, it seemed like the culmination of a bunch of different forces in the US government. Bush received a shit ton of money from the oil sector, and god knows those guys benefited from Iraq's oil production being privatized. The arms manufacturers and mercenaries got a lotta pork outta the deal, along with the industries which serve them. White nationalists got a chance to kill brown people, and the Mormons got to send in their missionaries to convert the Muslims. The US did have some valid complaints against the Hussein regime (see: The Gulf War, Anfal operations, expelling of UN nuclear watchdogs), so it's not too surprising that the intelligence agencies & military would roll with it.