Note: this post augments the previous post.
Question of the Week: Had Bush not said those few words in his State of the Union address, would Congress have made a different decision?
Bush's State of the Union Address:
. . . The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide. . . .
Was that the clinching paragraph? No one will ever know if the war could have been avoided—the speech is irreversible.
If only Quantum Leap were real...