Salmon Pak had a 707 used for hijack practice, I recall. Salmon Pak was well known to the media and public but it seems that most do not care.
It was obvious that Iraq was crawling with terrorists during the invasion. The Fadiyan were the only real fighters. I am not sure if SH had operational control or not. SH was an opportunist using terrorists when useful. SH hated the US and could not be trusted.
Some president would have needed to deal with SH. The sooner the better as SH was anxious to begin selling more oil and rebuild the military. SH was anxious to spend money on weapons of mass destruction. Bush learned the lesson that the Germans taught to the French and British in the 1930s. Crush your enemy while it is possible. Your enemy will not stop trying to find and exploit your weakness.
The thirst for power has turned into the left into the enemy. If Al Gore was president, the rats would sing a very different tune. Their tune was very different during Clinton’s disasterous military usage.
The left, if they acknowledge any pre-Operation Enduring Freedom AQ in Iraq at all, will say that most of the AQ were in the north which was not securely under SH’s control. What they don’t say (or perhaps realize) is that AQ in the north was fighting Kurds on behalf of SH.
Now BHO and his ilk say that our “invasion” is responsible for the presence of AQ in Iraq as if that was a bad thing! We attracted AQ and other terrorists to Iraq to die and leave their cell phones and laptops for our intel to examine. Rummy will be seen by future historians to have been a military genius, imho.