President Bush didn’t want the war with Iraq to start too soon after his ultimatum to Saddam Hussein expired Wednesday night, aides say. He relished the idea of his Iraqi nemesis sitting in Baghdad, watching the skies, wondering when the first bombs would fall. But after CIA Director George Tenet reported that cruise missiles just might be able to strike a group of senior Iraqi leaders, maybe even Saddam himself, Bush authorized the start of the war nearly an hour before the deadline was up. The momentous decision Wednesday evening was almost anti-climactic. Within weeks of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the president and his most influential advisers set a goal of toppling Saddam — if possible by coup or exile, more likely by force. Bush began to make the case to the world with his speech to the United Nations a year and a day after the attacks. Full Story
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