John Kerry said today that the Bush administration has changed his reason for invading Iraq 23 times to justify the war in Iraq. I found the original source for that quote, and in fact, the administration has changed its reasoning 25 times (you'll note that the study says 24 of the rationales ORIGINATED with the administration, the 25th rationale, however, the administration still used even though they didn't come up with it originally). The study documenting this is pretty damn good, well-sourced, and over 200 pages long. You can find the study via this page. This is really good stuff, and damning as hell. Now who's waffling?
PS One more sobering point: Jerome over at MyDD points out that the study is now almost 2 years old. Lord knows how many additional reasons Bush came up with (like the 2 I found this weekend alone) since that time. All 25 reasons were given in just ONE YEAR! Sounds like time for an updated study.
1. War on Terror
2. Prevention of the proliferation of WMD
3. Lack of Inspections
4. Remove Saddam Hussein regime
5. Saddam Hussein is evil
6. Invading Iraq would allow us to gain favor in the Middle East
7. Example to other terror states
8. Liberate the Iraqi people
9. Broken Promises - Iraq had made commitments to the UN and the world
10. Revenge for Iraq's attempt on the life of President H.W. Bush
11. Threat Saddam posed to the region
12. Because We Can - There would be little conflict or struggle, little price to pay for entering the country, the war would be easy.
13. Cleaning up unfinished business in Iraq from the first Gulf War
14. War for Oil - The US' oil interests in the Middle East and Iraq serve as a reason for wanting to invade the state and topple its leader.
15. Sake of History - Pres. Bush claimed history had called on the US to take action against Iraq
16. Disarmament - total elimination of ALL weapons in Iraq
17. Safety of the World - Iraq as a terrorist nation could sell weapons to other terrorists and thus posed a threat to the entire world
18. Commitment to the Children - America should give its children and the world's children a better future.
19. Imminent Threat - The uncertainty of Iraq's weapon power and future plans.
20. Preserve Peace - Iraq posted a threat to the peace of the world by its continued terrorist involvement and its increased tension in the Middle East
21. Threat to Freedom - By oppressing its people and threatening the world with possible terror acts, freedom was prevention from spreading through the Middle East and was lessened in those nations that feared terror in their backyards.
22. Link to al Qaeda
23. Iraq Unique - Rumsfeld declared that Saddam Hussein in combination with the weapons potential in Iraq made Iraq different than the other "axis of evil" countries, and therefore a great immediate threat.
24. Relevance of UN - The UN was put on notice that it would face illegitimacy if it did not support the cause of the United States.
25. Iraq had broken international law - Colin Powell said that violations of UN resolutions broke international laws established in the UN Charter.
I would also add 2 more that Bush announced in the past few days:
26. Saddam "hopes" to "some day" get WMD (as compared to he "has" WMD).
27. Saddam had an "ability to work with terrorist organizations" (as compared to actually "working" with terrorist orgs).
