Robert Parry: Have We Ever Wondered Why Bush Invaded Iraq?

A decade after President George W Bush ordered the unprovoked invasion of Iraq, one of the enduring mysteries has been why. There was the rationale, sold to a frightened American people in 2002 to 2003, that Saddam Hussein was plotting to attack them with Weapons of Mass Destruction, but no one in power really believed that. There have been other, more plausible explanations. George Bush the younger, wanted to avenge a perceived slight to George Bush the elder, while also outdoing his father as a war president. Vice President Dick Cheney had his eye on Iraq's oil wealth, and the Republican Party saw an opportunity to create its permanent majority behind a glorious victory in the Middle East. Though George W Bush's defenders vigorously denied being motivated by such crass thinking, those rationales do seem closer to the truth. However, there was another driving force behind the desire to conquer Iraq: The neoconservative belief that the conquest would be a first step toward installing compliant pro US regimes throughout the Middle East, and letting Israel dictate final peace terms to its neighbors. That rationale has often been dressed up as democratizing the Middle East, but the idea was more a form of neocolonialism, in which American proconsuls would make sure, that a favored leader, like the Iraqi National Congress' Ahmed Chalabi would control each country, and align the nations' positions with the interests of the United States and Israel. Some analysts have traced this idea back to the "neocon" Project for the New American Century in the late 1990s, which advocated for regime change in Iraq, but the idea's origins go back to the early 1990s and two seminal events. The first game changing moment came in 1990's to 91, when President HW Bush showed off the unprecedented advancements in US military technology. Almost from the moment that Iraq's Saddam Hussein invaded Kuweit in 1990, the Iraqi dictator began signaling his willingness to withdraw, after having taught the arrogant al Sabah ruling family in Kuweit a lesson in power politics, but the Bush 41 administration wasn't willing to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Kuwait invasion. Instead of letting Hussein arrange an orderly withdrawal, Bush 41 began baiting him with insults, and blocking any face saving way for a retreat. Peace feelers from Hussein, and later from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, were rebuffed, as Bush 41 waited his chance to demonstrate the stunning military realities of his New World Order, even as the US field commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf favored Gorbachev's plan for letting Iraqi forces pull back, but Bush 41 was determined to have a ground war!