On Sunday, December 21, 2014 7:17:11 PM UTC-5, nestork wrote:
'philo*[_2_ Wrote:
;3324165']
After 911 I would have done sufficient research to find out /exactly/
where the threat came from and completely wiped them out.

Since the terrorists apparently came from Afghanistan then that would
have been the place to go. Although the US did put some effort into
going after terrorists there, the majority of the effort was put into
Iraq.


A considerably bigger problem than Iraq (Iraq was not a threat to the
US) is the issue of Saudi Arabia which you say is our good friend. The
Saudis were where the terrorists came from and the US in one way or
another needed to (and still needs to ) address that issue.


The US made a tremendous effort after 9-11 to find out who was behind
the attack. They found out it was the Al Queda group headed by Osama
Bin Laden, which had basically taken over the country of Afghanistan.

But, at the time, G. W. Bush had his sites set on ridding Saddam Hussein
of weapons of mass destruction. And, truth be told, Saddam Hussein did
every thing he could to convince the world he was hiding something.
Iraqi officials would argue with UN inspectors to stall them while
trucks were hurriedly leaving inspection sites, and that made everyone
believe that Iraq had WMDs.

In fact, it came out afterward that Saddam's intent was to convince Iran
and the rest of the Arab world that he had WMD's so that he would
command more fear and respect in the arab world.

So, largely because of Saddam Hussain pretending he had WMD's, the Bush
WhiteHouse adopted the "Al Queda first" policy of trying to wipe out Al
Queda before setting their sites on Iraq.




--
nestork

All of that is correct and makes sense, except the last part. Bush went
after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan first, because Saddam was acting like he had
WMDs? Bush went after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan because of the 911 attack,
end of story. At the same time, he started ratcheting up the screws on
Iraq, to comply with the cease fire agreement, UN orders, etc. that called
for them to fully cooperate with the UN weapons inspectors, account for all
WMDS, etc. When Iraq refused to comply, over a year after Afghanistan already
had been invaded, he then made the case for action against Iraq