On September 11, 1990, G.H.W. Bush spoke before Congress:

[screembloodymurder]

"Vital issues of principle are at stake. Saddam Hussein is literally trying to wipe a country off the face of the Earth. We do not exaggerate. Nor do we exaggerate when we say Saddam Hussein will fail. Vital economic interests are at risk as well. Iraq itself controls some 10 percent of the world's proven oil reserves. Iraq plus Kuwait controls twice that. An Iraq permitted to swallow Kuwait would have the economic and military power, as well as the arrogance, to intimidate and coerce its neighbors -- neighbors who control the lion's share of the world's remaining oil reserves. We cannot permit a resource so vital to be dominated by one so ruthless. And we won't.”

In the minds of the Neocons, Papa Bush made just one mistake - he didn't remove Hussein.

On September 11, 2001, the Neocons hit the trifecta. They established the justification for their doctrine. They demonstrated that weak, "liberal" democratic policy could leave us vulnerable to attack and instilled a "distrust of freedom" in the American public. They gave the world an ultimatum: "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorist."

There is no such thing as coincidence.