Being blissfully ignorant of politics and the "reasons" for anything our government does, yet having been on the ground for the invasion, I'll offer my own insights.



If our leaders truly put us over there for reasons other than WMDs, I'd be surprised. Everything from our training to briefings indicated that we would likely face biological and/or chemical weapons. The precedent had been set during the Iran-Iraq war and Saddam's dealings with the Kurds. We carried gas masks during all the initial phases of operations and other MOPP gear was close at hand, including autoinjectors which were carried in the mask case. Every time a SCUD was launched we had to don masks and head to the rally point. My team leader counted 23 real life NBC alerts, each of which we prepared for possible biological or chemical contamination. Our orders were for six months with a "possible" extension up to 1 year and our leaders were telling us we would be home in four months. "Nation building" was a phase conducted after we destroyed the Baath regime in order to better quality of life for Iraqis. America being America, we then decided we had to not only help rebuild but to set up a new government, police the streets and effectively occupy Iraq for the foreseeable future. That precedent was set in WWII and carried through Korea, Vietnam, and other conflicts. Unless every level of military leadership was misled by our executive powers, our initial reason for invading was to topple Saddam due to his stubbornness when it came to disclosing info about possible WMDs.