Bush needed to prove to himself and the world that he could do better than his daddy. tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
absolutely agreed.
Although the geostrategical goals cannot be left aside, there is also an important psychological factor. After the shock of the WTC-destruction, the Bush admin must have been under extreme mass psychological pressure to to something that is supposed to look like some sort of retaliation and that has a visibly bigger scale than the 9/11 terror acts. I believe that without the war in Iraq, Bush would not have been re-elected.
(But that is only a remote diagnosis by someone who has never been in the US)
These neocons are full of shit! Frames exist within larger frames. Draw a larger frame around your opponent's frame; he will appear wrong or insufficient. This is how wizards play.
Motherfuckers hurt us? We're gonna hurt "them" 100 time more. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
