"Osama declared war against the U.S. several times before 9/11..."
Fine, how many times did Iraq declare war against us? We are still at war with Osama & AQ last I heard.
Ah, you're one of those that thinks Osama and Saddam are two separate issues.
In reality, we never had a formal declaration of peace from Gulf War I. Iraq agreed to a number of stipulations (including ALL UN resolutions), with non-compliance resulting in the re-implementation of hostilities against them. We spent a decade at war patrolling the "no fly zones" over Iraq, and allied planes were attacked EVERY day by Iraq.
Technically, we HAVE been at war with Iraq since 1991. We invaded to enforce the UN resolutions that Iraq agreed to abide by in the negotiations that took place after the rout in Kuwait.
LLS