How can anyone have in the Bush administration seriously believed Iraq was a threat? I know the intelligence was bad to begin with…but there are some pretty high level suggestions that they didn’t even care what the intelligence said either way (enshrinement of the arbitrary at the highest levels of government doesn’t say much about the quality of our leaders):
It makes some sense to think that they picked Iraq as a first stop on their way to transforming the entire region, as a kind of jumping pad to other countries like Iran. They may have felt that since Saddam had abused his people and was supposedly very unpopular it would be a cakewalk, they thought the soldiers would be greeted with flowers and such. They did not expect it to be drawn out. Perhaps they thought they’d take over Iraq easy and quick then set their sights on bigger fish, with the ultimate aim at “democratizing” the entire region and deposing its extremist theological rulers. Apparently that didn’t work, and now they are stuck in Iraq, while Iran builds up its nuclear arsenal.