About 5 months before the March 2003 Iraq war, I asked my son who was there throughout GW 1 how many troops we should have if we did invade. He said about 450,000. Instead we went in with under 300,000, and Gen Shinsecki (sp?) was fired for insisting we needed that many. If Bush/Cheney were going to send us in, they had to do it underprepared or else wait until after the summer heat which would have put the war too close to the next election for comfort. After a year there Bremmer (sp?) said we should have had 1/2 million. Bush 2’s stated reason was, “He (Saddam) tried to kill my Daddy.” Cheney wanted to set up Halliburton to make big money. Remember the lousy food scandal. At the time I remember reading an article that Halliburton had cut their lobbying money by 2/3ds after he became vice president. Why spend advertising money when the VP is in your pocket? I think at the time Cheney had $23million in Halliburton stock.
” Cheney wanted to set up Halliburton to make big money. Remember the lousy food scandal.”
The food concession would be a drop in the bucket for Halliburton. And American GIs have bitched about the food since George Washington was leading them.
Those are also all “peripheral” stuff. None of them are the real reasons we went in.