Then, in the immediate aftermath of the eleventh, not that much changed. The focus was on Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda. Some initial attempts by WolfowitzPaul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense and others to draw Iraq in never went anywhere, because the link between Iraq and September 11th was, as far as we know, nebulous at mostnonexistent, for all intents and purposes. Its somewhere in the first half of 2002 that all this changed. The President internalized the idea of making regime change in Iraq a priority. What I cant explain to you is exactly the process that took us from the initial post-September 11th position, which was, Lets keep the focus on Al Qaeda and Afghanistan, to, say, nine months later, when Iraq had moved to the top of the priority list for us. Thats a mystery that nobody has yet uncovered. It clearly has something to do with September 11th, and its clearly consistent with the Presidents speech about weapons of mass destruction in the hands of rogues, people with a history of some terrorbut, again, how it exactly happened, and what was the particular role of Cheney, among others, I wish you well in uncovering.
No kidding it had to do with 9/11. It energized Bush to finish the Gulf War. They talked about it within one week of 9/11. Iraq was a drain on us for 12 years, maybe we didn't think about it much, but the govt. had to deal with it daily.