George W. Bush and the Iraq War

The 2003 Iraq War was begun mostly by the efforts of United States President George W. Bush.

Beginning at his January 29, 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush began publicly focusing attention on Iraq, which he labeled as part of an "axis of evil" allied with terrorists and posing "a grave and growing danger" to U.S. interests through possession of "weapons of mass destruction". In the latter half of 2002, Central Intelligence Agency reports requested by the Administration contained assertions that Saddam Hussein was intent on reconstituting nuclear weapons programs, had not properly accounted for Iraqi biological weapons and chemical weapons material in violation of UN sanctions, and that some Iraqi missiles had a range greater than allowed by the UN sanctions. In particular, the CIA drew together an October 1, 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, pulling together the intelligence, estimations, opinions and judgments of 16 different U.S. intelligence services, including dissenting views or challenges to various assertions. Several versions of this report were or have been produced with varying levels of declassification, inclusion of dissenting opinions, and completeness. President Bush...
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