ABSTRACT
The Bush administration's expedition into Iraq proved destructive not only for Americans and Iraqis but for all whom it touched worldwide. Bush soon retracted the offending term and sought to distinguish terrorists from good Muslims. Still, he called for a global war against terror. Instead of destroying bin Laden and consolidating a new government in Afghanistan, the Bush team opted to attack Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power. The vice president pressed the CIA to find links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and evidence that Saddam was acquiring nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons of mass destruction (WMD). CIA director George Tenet assured Bush it would be a "slam dunk" to prove the WMD threat from Iraq, but the National Intelligence Estimate presented to the White House in October 2002 found no clear links between al-Qaeda and Saddam.
