Axxman300
Philosopher
Yes, and the sick fact is that there was a conspiracy by the US government - to pin the blame on Iraq so they could invade.
Yet we knew on 9-12-2001 that it was Al Qaeda, not Iraq. That's why you have a year and a half gap between the attack and the invasion. And as I said before, had Bush waited it would have only been a matter of time before Saddam did something to warrant legitimate military action.
Considering how blatantly they manipulated the public, and the fortuitousness of the attack occurring just when they needed it, CTers can be forgiven for theorizing that they had a hand in it.
Let me clue you in about Americans. We weren't manipulated, we just didn't care. From the end of Desert Storm through 2002 we were "fed"a long list of documentaries on PBS, the BBC, 60 Minutes, and other (back then) reliable journalistic sources about life in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Many Americans felt that the suffering of the Shiites, and Kurds under Saddam were a result of our "not finishing the job".
Iraq had been a clearing house for international terrorism going back to the late 1970's. The DRFLA's take over of the Iranian Embassy in London had been facilitated by Iraq with their weapons being brought in via diplomatic pouch. Suicide bombings in Israel could be traced to Iraq, and stopped all together during the run-up to the invasion. Abu Nidal's FATAH was funded by Iraq, and received training. Abu Nidal was shot in his apartment in 2002, not by us. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was recuperating in an Iraqi hospital at the time of the US invasion.
After 9-11, Iraq didn't just represent a terrorist threat - it embodied a terrorist threat.
So yes, it was at the top of the list.