I'd like to blame Clinton -- and I do, usually -- but I think a lot of Americans have been guilty of ignoring the facts of this war for a very long time. I know I didn't see the truth until I started paying attention, and that wasn't until after they slaughtered 3,000 Americans.
I guess I'm making up for lost time, here.
*********************************************
President Bush announces the U.S. ground war againt Saddam Hussein's forces. Operation Desert Storm begins.
Feburary 23, 1998:
Usama bin Laden issues his fatwa (Islamic declaration of war) against the United States. His primary stated reasons for this fatwa are the continued U.S. agression against Iraq and the U.S. occupation of the Arab peninsula (read: Saudi Arabia) for the purposes of threatening Arab neighbors (read: Saddam Hussein).
February 26, 1991:
Saddam Hussein announces the withdraw of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. The Gulf War ends.
February 26, 1993:
Ryder truck bomb attack on WTC in New York City kills 6.
April 19, 1991:
UNSCOM is formed to carry out weapons inspection in Iraq. In this interview with CNN, Tariq Aziz refers to "the end of the war in April 19, 1991".
April 19, 1995:
Ryder truck bomb attack on Murrah Building in Oklahoma City kills 168.
July 17:
Annual celebration of 1969 Ba'athist takeover of Iraq. July 17, 1996:
TWA Flight 800 "bombing" (according to George Stephanopoulos) kills 230 passengers
June 25, 1993:
U.S. launches cruise missile strikes against Iraqi intelligence for the attempted assassination of President George H.W. Bush in Kuwait City (and, unofficially, for the February WTC attack).
June 25, 1999:
Fuel truck-bomb explodes outside the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 19 USAF military personnel and wounding 515 persons, including 240 U.S. personnel.
August 7, 1990:
Operation Desert Shield begins, in response to the August 2 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
August 7, 1998:
Two car bombs explode at the American Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people and wounding more than 5,000 others.
September 11, 1990:
President George H.W. Bush addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress on the matter of Saddam Hussein and the looming Gulf War ("This is not, as Saddam Hussein would have it, the United States against Iraq. It is Iraq against the world"). This was President Bush's first major address on the issue.
September 11, 2001:
Terrorists hijack four commercial airliners in coordinated strikes on New York City and Washington, DC, killing over 3000.