The claim that there were stockpiles of wmd in Iraq did NOT come out of the brain of George W. Bush. I can post you quote after quote after quote of the Clinton administration and Democrats leaders saying the EXACT same thing. And BEFORE George W. Bush's administration every thought about leading the country!
I was personally present at the February 1998 Ohio State University Town Hall Meeting.....where these things were said:
"Madelyn Albright said. "Our problem and the world's problem is with Iraq's leaders. And today those leaders have a choice. They can allow U.N. inspections to proceed on the world's terms, or they can invite serious military strikes on ours."
William Cohen said: ""With respect to Saddam Hussein, we can deal with him now or our children and grandchildren will have to deal with the spread of
chemical and biological weapons later. I think now is the time that we deal with it and not later."
Sandy Berger said, ""We want to resolve this peacefully," Berger said,
"but there are some things worth fighting for. And those include fighting aggression, fighting people who threaten their neighbors, and fighting to make this world a safer and more secure place for my children and for
yours."
Madelyn Albright said, "When the Gulf War ended seven years ago, Iraq was required to destroy
such arms, and a special United Nations commission, called UNSCOM, was
created to verify that and to see that weapons would not be replaced.
Despite repeated Iraqi obstruction, UNSCOM has uncovered and destroyed
more of those deadly weapons than were demolished during the entire
Gulf War.
But the evidence is strong that Iraq continues to hide
prohibited weapons and materials. There remains a critical gap between
the number of weapons we know Iraq produced and the amount we can
confirm were destroyed. There is only one way to learn the truth:
UNSCOM's inspectors must have free, unfettered and unconditional
access to people, documents and facilities in Iraq. That is what we're
demanding, and that demand has been echoed repeatedly by the UN
Security Council and by the world.
Unfortunately,
Saddam continues to deny UNSCOM access to dozens of
suspect sites. He's also trying to discredit UNSCOM, and to change its
character so that it will no longer be independent, and its
inspections no longer credible. As President Clinton made clear in his
strong speech yesterday at the Pentagon, the United States will not
allow this to happen. Iraq must permit UN inspectors to do their jobs,
as the Security Council has directed.
If this does not occur, we must
be, and we are, prepared to use military force."
http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1998/02...22006_tpo.html