Maybe Bush is smarter than you give him credit for.

After the Lockerbie bombing, America bombed Libya. This was a country led by people who had been behind all kinds of naughtiness.

Libya were pretty damn quick to disocciate themselves from 9/11.

Maybe Bush knew there probably weren't WMD's in Iraq. they were like the tennis balls scene in Henry V, where Henry gives a specious reason for war and then takes offence at a petty slight.

However perhaps Bush felt he had to make a vigorous and prolonged reaction to 9/11 to show that there would be consequences of terrorism like this, and its not all that smart to f---- with a country that has the power the re-draw the maps if they feel like it.

I'm not saying he was right, but I since the WMD's didn't turn up , I have wondered what the war was about. A naive person would say simply oil, but its obvious that possession of such a raw material doesn't make a country rich or important.

Maybe thats the answer.   maybe thats the way he felt he had to play it.