CNN's Wolf Blitzer, marking the 10th anniversary of his show, took a brief look back at statements made by President Bush, and members of his cabinet, making their case to invade Iraq, perhaps even before George W. Bush was President.
As a candidate, Bush already had, in his mind, a course of action to take if it were discovered that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction. Then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice made a vague but pronounced case in September of 2002 that Hussein was "actively pursuing" nuclear capabilities, citing a shipment of aluminum tubes and his access to nuclear experts. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in November of 2005, was called on faulty intelligence that Rumsfeld used to connect al-Qaeda to Iraq. Finally, Vice President Dick Cheney, despite any question from the public or the media, insisted in January of 2007 that invading Iraq was the right thing to do, saying that Saddam Hussein and Iranian president, "blood enemy" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would have by then been in a "nuclear arms race."
A clip, as aired on CNN's Late Edition on July 6, 2008, is available to view below.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer, marking the 10th anniversary of his show, took a brief look back at statements made by President Bush, and members of his cabinet, making their case to invade Iraq, perhaps even before George W. Bush was President.