Iraq War Timeline

From dKosopedia

1 Bush was focused on Saddam Hussein from the beginning
2 Iraq dominated the foreign policy agenda for the NSC
3 Plans for overthrowing Iraq were underway before 9/11
4 9/11 was seen right away as an chance to invade Iraq
5 Planning for full scale war in Iraq began immediately
6 Focus was Iraq not Afghanistan two months after 9/11
7 Key resources were diverted from Afghanistan to Iraq
8 The decision to go to war was made by spring of 2002
9 The air campaign began in full as early as June 2002
10 Going to the UN was an afterthought not a precursor
11 Almost no planning was done for the post-war period
12 We have lost ground in the War on Terror due to Iraq

Bush was focused on Saddam Hussein from the beginning

During the 2000 presidential campaign, George W. Bush gladly admitted that foreign policy was not his strong point. "Nobody needs to tell me what to believe, but I do need somebody to tell me where Kosovo is." -1 He frequently cast his reliance on advisors in a positive light. "I’ve assembled a team of very strong, smart people. And I look forward to hearing their advice." -2 Asked about East Timor, Bush replied, "I may not be able to tell you exactly the nuances of the East Timorian situation but I’ll ask Condi Rice or I’ll ask Paul Wolfowitz or I’ll ask Dick Cheney. I’ll ask people who’ve had experience." -3

Clearly, the son of the man who threw Saddam out of Kuwait had some beliefs of his own about Iraq. No doubt, those beliefs were influenced by the Iraqi attempt to assassinate his father in 1993. "After all, this is the guy that tried to kill my Dad at one time." -4 A former oil executive, the fact that Iraq was sitting on the second largest oil reserve in the world was not lost on Bush, either. "Perhaps most ominously, Saddam Hussein is threatening to cut back production and is again claiming that Kuwait is stealing Iraq’s oil – the same claim Iraq made in 1990." -5 Most revealing of all, Bush family friend and biographer Mickey Herskowitz admits, "I'll tell you, he was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999. One of the things he said to me, is 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.'" -6

1- Tucker Carlson, "Devil May Care," Talk Magazine, September 1999

2- CNN.com, "Bush picks Ford veteran Rumsfeld to lead Pentagon," December 28, 2000

3- Maureen Dowd, "Freudian Face-Off," New York Times, June 16, 1999

4- Stewart Powell, "Ending Iraqi threat is personal for Bush," Times Union, November 10, 2002

5- GeorgeWBush.com, "A Comprehensive National Energy Policy," September 29, 2000

6- Kim Cobb, "Writer says Bush talked about war in 1999," Houston Chronicle, October 31, 2004

Iraq dominated the foreign policy agenda for the NSC

Plans for overthrowing Iraq were underway before 9/11

9/11 was seen right away as an chance to invade Iraq

Planning for full scale war in Iraq began immediately

Focus was Iraq not Afghanistan two months after 9/11

Key resources were diverted from Afghanistan to Iraq

The decision to go to war was made by spring of 2002

The air campaign began in full as early as June 2002

Going to the UN was an afterthought not a precursor

Almost no planning was done for the post-war period

We have lost ground in the War on Terror due to Iraq

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This page was last modified 18:28, 17 August 2006 by dKosopedia user Corncam. Based on work by dKosopedia user(s) Allamakee Democrat and Topdog08. Content is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.