First, just if I might correct a misperception, I don't think we ever said -- at least I know I didn't say that there was a direct connection between September the 11th and Saddam Hussein.
--George W. Bush, March 2006
Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq...
--Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq, signed into law by Bush, 2002
[Invading Iraq] is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.
--Letter by President Bush to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, March 18, 2003
I had to go look it up, but it was Sen. Hiram Johnson who first said, "The first casualty when war comes is truth." In the Iraq war, truth was assassinated to clear the path to war -- before the first shot was fired. Lie upon lie upon lie were piled up on top of the truth, smothering it. Before the first boot hit Iraqi soil, the Bush administration had fired off 935 false statements. And, as the quotes above show, the Bush administration has never stopped lying about Iraq.
First, Bush signed statements tying Iraq to 9/11 into law. Later, he claimed those statements never existed. You don't even need the internet to prove him wrong, you can look it up in a law library.
Once it became clear that Iraq didn't have anything to do with 9/11, the Bush administration continued to claim that Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda were joined at the hip. It wasn't really all that hard to push this propaganda, since the media's coverage of the middle east prior to 9/11 left most Americans largely ignorant of the facts on the ground there. Saddam was a Muslim and a monster, al Qaeda were Muslims and monsters -- clearly, they were exactly the same. What Edward Said termed "Orientalism" filled in the gaps in our knowledge. We "knew" that they were all the same -- murderous zealots obsessed with religious doctrine...
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