Purge or be purged.
Saddam was staging a comeback on the international scene, but Bush interrupted that comeback.
Pre-War "containment" of Saddam had failed more and more each day.
1. The oil-for-food program was corruptSaddam was thumbing his nose at decent people as he rewarded his collaborators.
2. The weapons inspections were a farce
3. US and allied planes were targeted
4. Uninspected flights to Baghdad gutted the sanctions
5. Terrorists were training in Iraq
6. Saddam supported terrorism - $25,000 to each family of a suicide bomber (Thanks, Prost1).
7. Saddam brutalized our fellow human beings
8. Iraq and Libya were co-operating on a nuclear program
9. Saddam founded the "Jerusalem army" (Jaysh al-Quds) to invade Jerusalem