Iraq War flashback: When did the drumbeat for war start?

[Ignacio Upton]

From my observation, it had begun right after 9/11 but didn't gain any traction until after Tora Bora when Osama Bin Laden got away because we outsourced the job of finding him to the warlords. I do remember that in the months after 9/11 people were casually talking about how Saddam was "next." For example, I remember watching an episode of MadTV around December '01 and a guy playing Bush was talking about gettin Saddam next. I also remember going to the WTC Site a few months after 9/11 and there were venders selling toilet paper with Saddam's face along with toilet paper of Osama's face. I remember that there were several times during '02 that Wolf Blitzer and other "pressitutes" were shuttled to Kuwait to do news stories on Iraq and its threat to American interests. I also remember that when these specials air, a "Showdown with Iraq" or "Showdown in Iraq" graphic would air at the bottom of the screen but above the ticker. I also remember that even when Hans Blix was inspecting Iraqi facilities, that for the whole inspection period, Bush kept saying that Saddam wasn't cooperating, EVEN THOUGH THE INSPECTION WAS STILL GOING ON!!!!!!!!!!!! I also remember that after Blix turned in his first report Bush's advisors told him to go in in March because an April or May attack would be harder because of the heat.

........Anyone else have any vague memories of the rush to war? All I know is that Bush really wanted to go into Iraq, and damn anyone else who would tell him otherwise. I also remember a complicit media that orgasmically showed "Showdown with Iraq" graphics and interviewed Neo Con intelligence analysts instead of doing research on why we should even be going into war at all

[Warpy]

1. It started during the Clinton years, but Clinton wasn't stupid enough

to invade. It picked up steam during Stupid's 2000 campaign, and was a main plank in his platform. The first thing they did on 9/11 (well, after they told Stupid to get out of his chair and onto AF1 to run away) was to start screaming about Iraq. The first thing they did when those oh-so-convenient anthrax mailings happened was to scream about Iraq. Too bad Afghanistan was such a distraction and allowed that anthrax to be traced back to the CIA.

For anyone paying attention, it was Iraq, Iraq, Iraq, all the time, nonstop, interspersed with crap about tax cuts. They wanted to invade that country so bad they could taste the pollution in the Tigris. Stupid wanted to show up his daddy by "finishing the job." Cheney wanted the war profiteering. The neocons in the Pentagon wanted air bases and oil. The religious wack jobs wanted heathens to convert. The supply siders wanted to create a laboratory for a privatized Utopia.

If anything demonstrates the utter bankruptcy of ideas from all these groups, it's Iraq. We have to get them out of office. Our country and our lives depend on it.

[wuushew]

2. Summer 2002

n/t

[Ignacio Upton]

4. I have bad flashbacks of that time in general

That was also the summer where I got my appendix removed because it ruptured. However, there was another silver lining in being in the hospital for a week besides not haivng to do shit. While I was in the hospital, I remember flipping through channels on the tv and I saw an episode of Meet the Press. It was the first time that I ever watched or heard of Howard Dean. I remember being impressed with his interview with Russert. While I ultimately didn't support him in the primaries (I liked Clark more) he was my second choice and I still respect him for being one of the first Democrats to call the war BS.

[FormerRepublican]

3. It began BEFORE 9/11.

I remember the incident with Clinton, too. No go with Clinton in charge. But with Bush, I believe floating the Iraq thing started shortly after Bush got in office.

[Poiuyt]

5. True. It was right after Bush took office

I remember wondering why Bush was being such a hard ass about Iraq. Why was he talking about invading Iraq? They hadn't bothered anyone in 10 years. This was when Bush's approval ratings were low. The pundits on TV were saying that George watched his father have extremely high ratings when he invaded Iraq, but they went down when the war was over. They said that George was determined not to make the same mistakes that his father did (as far as maintaining popularity). It then became clear to me that George wanted to invade Iraq just for his popularity and political power. This was all before 9/11.

[Nutmegger]

6. I noticed that Iraq

was spoken about during the effing 2000 campaigns! That seemed odd to me, real odd.