Not tinfoil if events did happen, Saddam had every opportunity over the past years after Gulf War to come clean and uphold what he agreed to. The whole world knew who and what Saddam was, weren't we up to 17 and counting resolutions against the guy?? That has been one of the long standing accusations that right after 9/11 President Bush wanted Saddam's head.
I figure the DEMs were honestly as convinced as GWB was that Iraq needed more than a spanking. And today, all they are doing is politicizing a military conflict and playing Monday-moring quarterback. If it wasn't Iraq, it would have been whatever other subject seemed to draw the most attention, or seemed to offer the most convincing political attack against the opposition party.
IOW, this playout of attack wasn't planned that far in advance, for all the DEMs knew, Sadam would capitulate to an adequate weapons inspection regime at some point.
Thought provoking article -> http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1518031/posts noting that the current frame of argument relating to justification for military action is making it MORE difficult to undertake preemptive attacks, and ironically, therefore MORE difficult to credibly insist on effective weapons inspection programs.
I see things a bit differently. The Clintons had a stated foreign policy of "equalize all nations" and with their election loss by algore in 2000, I think they went into panic mode.
There were some key events that occurred during the Clintons administration that sent the signal to the world that we were already operating under a "mush doctrine" while touting a "preemptive strike doctrine".
From your link (and thank you for it) seems a bit strange there is concern to rehabilitate our creditability over such doctrine.
What cannot be ignored in all this is the international community under the UN and that would include US, were saying one thing resolving against Saddam over and over again, at the same time the UN was orchestrating from the other side of its mouth that corrupt scam of "Oil for rotten Food" program. There can be little doubt that the Clinton/State department were aware of that scam.
Now our liberals seem to have lost direction for some months over that 2000 election loss, as it appears they never planned for the possibility of what they would do if they lost. So obsessed they were over that loss they seemed to have forgotten "superpower" status, and were all about creating every possible roadblock to a smooth transition.
Personally I believe that Rockey's leaked memo came about after the mid-term 2002 elections, they lost big time and were forced to loose what they demanded most "union" status in the homeland security formation. While we do not know when it was formulated the usage of the word "majority party" points to after the 2002 election.