Untitled Document

The war in Iraq has been raging non-stop since the US-led invasion in March of 2003. More than six months before the invasion, logistical preparations had already begun. Bush Administration officials cited “weapons of mass destruction” in the hands of Saddam Hussein as the vital threat to US security that was causus bellus for the invasion.

October 7, 2002: During the fall of 2002, members of the Bush administration build a steady drumbeat for war: "Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." (George W. Bush: Republican rally, Cincinnati,OH)

January 28, 2003: In his address to the nation President Bush cites Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction” numerous times and casts a nuclear shadow over the threat reputedly posed by his regime: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." (George W. Bush: State of the Union Address)

February 2003: Colin Powell presents evidence of the presence of WMD in Iraq and alleges clear links to terrorist groups. The evidence consists of aerial photos of mobile trailers, “training” sites reputedly used by terrorists and aluminum tubes linked to the alleged Iraqi nuclear program.

March 6, 2003: In a tightly scripted news conference, President Bush declares that all efforts at disarming Saddam Hussein by non-violent means had failed, making the US-led invasion inevitable.

March 12, 2003: US warplanes begin bombing “strategic” sites in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities. The campaign is referred to as “Shock and Awe”. The intent being to put the overwhelming power of the US war machine on display.

March 19, 2003: More than 125,000 US and British ground troops invade Iraq from the south and push north toward Baghdad.

April 5, 2003: Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi and 700 members of his Iraqi National Congress (all on the US government payroll) are airlifted into Nasyria by the Pentagon on orders from Vice President Dick Cheney. Referred to by some in the media as the “DeGaulle” of Iraq, US officials discover Chalabi has little popular support inside the country.

May 1, 2003: George W. Bush co-pilots a US war plane onto the flight deck of the carrier USS Lincoln. He then appears before television cameras in full flight suit, declares victory and announces the end of major combat operations in Iraq. It is later revealed that the Lincoln was turned 180 degrees at White House request to provide crews with a camera angle that did not include the nearby coast of southern California. A prominent “Mission Accomplished” sign was fastened to the superstructure of the ship to provide background for the shot.

"The 'Mission Accomplished' sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln saying that their mission was accomplished." (George W. Bush, News Conference, 10/28/03)

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan later acknowledged that the sign was, in fact, produced by the White House.

May 2, 2003: L. Paul Bremer arrives in Iraq to lead the Coalition Provisional Authority. As one of his first acts as head of the CPA, Bremer disbands the Iraqi army and national guard, creating a security vacuum and setting the stage for widespread looting, lawlessness and armed resistance to the US-led occupation.

May 30, 2003: The search for weapons of mass destruction was a major focus of world attention following the fall of Baghdad. As the primary reason given by the Bush Administration for the death, destruction and social chaos the invasion had wrought, finding WMD in Iraq was of major concern.

In an interview with Polish television (5/30), Mr. Bush cited the mobile trailers (aerial photos of which were part of Colin Powell’s ‘evidence’ before the UN in February) found in postwar Iraq as evidence that the United States had “found the weapons of mass destruction “it was looking for." Two days later, the US State Department disputed the President’s claim. Still later, after extensive searches by CIA and military analysts, the trailers revealed no evidence of weapons manufacture.

January 2004: Six months after being commissioned to launch an exhaustive search throughout Iraq for Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, Chief Weapons Inspector David Kay reported that no weapons or evidence of weapons programs had been found. “We were almost all wrong, (about the Iraqi weapons threat)”, he reported.

In his State of the Union Address that same month, President Bush cited Saddam Hussein’s “weapons of mass destruction program-related activities” as the revised rationale for pre-emptive war.

May 2005: Minutes of a July 23, 2002 meeting between George Bush and Tony Blair indicating that diplomacy was never seriously considered is leaked to a London Times reporter. The minutes, written by Matthew Rycroft, a British foreign policy aide, indicate that the case for war at the time was "thin." Bush, however, wanted to remove Saddam through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and [weapons of mass destruction]. So “the intelligence and the facts were being fixed around the policy.”