THE IRAQ WAR
"The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 showed what the enemies of America did with four airplanes. We will not wait to see what terrorists or terrorist states could do with weapons of mass destruction." - March 6, 2003

In 2002, Bush began to lay the groundwork for invading Iraq, convinced that Saddam Hussein was secretly stockpiling chemical or nuclear weapons to use against American targets. Though intelligence agencies believed Hussein had chemical weapons and nuclear ambitions, Bush presented those conclusions with greater certainty than many analysts felt was warranted.