Whilst the factors contributing to an unprovoked invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation in arrogant defiance of world opinion are undoubtedly multiple, I submit that the following constitutes the essential lineaments of the road map - collateral detours, diversions, pretenses, incidental consequences, and excursions of convenience notwithstanding:
THE STATED GOAL
Rebuilding America’s Defenses:
http://www.newamericancentury.org
The Project for the New American Century, 2000:
”...the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.” (p14)
“.... a permanent unit should be based in the Persian Gulf region.” (p22)
“In ... the persian Gulf , enduring U.S. security interests argue forcefully for an enduring American military presence.” (p74)
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY
From “The Price of Loyalty”
http://thepriceofloyalty.ronsuskind.com, by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind, Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill’s first-person account:
“From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” says O’Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic "A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11.
“From the very first instance, it was about Iraq. It was about what we can do to change this regime,” says Suskind. “Day one, these things were laid and sealed.”
As treasury secretary, O'Neill was a permanent member of the National Security Council. He says in the book he was surprised at the meeting that questions such as "Why Saddam?" and "Why now?" were never asked.
"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this,’" says O’Neill. “For me, the notion of pre-emption, that the U.S. has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap.”
And that came up at this first meeting, says O’Neill, who adds that the discussion of Iraq continued at the next National Security Council meeting two days later.
He got briefing materials under this cover sheet. “There are memos. One of them marked, secret, says, ‘Plan for post-Saddam Iraq,’" adds Suskind, who says that they discussed an occupation of Iraq in January and February of 2001.
THE SMOKING GUN OF OPPORTUNISM http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/04/september11/main520830.shtml
Barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq — even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks.
That's according to notes taken by aides who were with Rumsfeld in the National Military Command Center on Sept. 11 – notes that show exactly where the road toward war with Iraq began, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.
At 9:53 a.m., just 15 minutes after the hijacked plane had hit the Pentagon, and while Rumsfeld was still outside helping with the injured, the National Security Agency, which monitors communications worldwide, intercepted a phone call from one of Osama bin Laden's operatives in Afghanistan to a phone number in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.
The caller said he had "heard good news" and that another target was still to come; an indication he knew another airliner, the one that eventually crashed in Pennsylvania, was at that very moment zeroing in on Washington.
It was 12:05 p.m. when the director of Central Intelligence told Rumsfeld about the intercepted conversation.
Rumsfeld felt it was "vague," that it "might not mean something," and that there was "no good basis for hanging hat." In other words, the evidence was not clear-cut enough to justify military action against bin Laden.
But later that afternoon, the CIA reported the passenger manifests for the hijacked airliners showed three of the hijackers were suspected al Qaeda operatives.
"One guy is associate of Cole bomber," the notes say, a reference to the October 2000 suicide boat attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, which had also been the work of bin Laden.
With the intelligence all pointing toward bin Laden, Rumsfeld ordered the military to begin working on strike plans. And at 2:40 p.m., the notes quote Rumsfeld as saying he wanted "best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H." – meaning Saddam Hussein – "at same time. Not only UBL" – the initials used to identify Osama bin Laden.
"Go massive," the notes quote him as saying. "Sweep it all up. Things related and not."
The ravenous appetite for fraudulent intelligence supportive of the predetermined scheme courtesy of Ahmad Chalabi and Iranian manipulation aside, the US is now establishing 14 permanent military bases in an occupied Iraq that has neither invited nor condoned such a strong-armed foreign imposition.
“Are we there yet?” Yes, we're 'there'. We have been taken for a ride. The neocons’ stated objective has been accomplished, the intended journey is completed. Unbuckle and check the oil. That maligned banner was correct:
”MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!”
So, there is a discernable logical progression from an ideological ilk out-of-power candidly having stated their geopolitical objective, through a preoccupation with that objective after having acceded to power, to an opportunistic exploiting and conflating of an unexpected disparate event to achieve the aforementioned goal.
I hasten to note that plausible deniability of the logical sequence might be readily achieved by the Bushie neocons addressing an
"EXIT STRATEGY" whereby an American military presence would no longer be a permanent aspect of Iraq's dubious future.
Please alert me to cogent developments that feature that term appearing in any Bushie pronouncements. Meanwhile, I shan't desist from respiratory function.
Otherwise, all that remains is the staging of a token "election", the proclamation of a glorious achievement, and the furtive absconding amidst the ongoing bloody disaster of all but the permanent, fortified US enclaves, otherwise known as "the goal".