You make a good point FRiend.
You’re a cool person.
I do not trust Weasley to tell the truth, but his claim is somewhat plausible. At the time (2003) we were in Afghanistan and Bush had just declared “mission accomplished” in Iraq. Also at the time, unaware of what Weasley wrote, I wondered whether they were going to go after Iran next (looking at a map and taking into account the rhetoric of the day).
It’s not totally outside the realm of possibility that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld had ambitions to “clean up” that part of the world in those days. Little did they know at the time how we’d get all bogged down in Iraq and that Afghanistan would turn into the quagmire it did, too.
So I’m keeping it as a question mark. Perhaps this time there is at least some truth in his claim.