I was in lower Manhattan on 9-11. I passionately desire to see Al Queda, Osama, etc captured and justice served. But Uday and Kousey getting caught had zero to do with it. Same goes for Saddam, given that the administration itself admits the WMD info was crapola. So let's have a new headline for Rangel.
How do you answer the many ties Saddam had to terror? He had Abu Nidal, Abu Abbas, and Al Zarquawi in Baghdad just before his regime fell.
I can put you in touch with a freed Iraqi who can tell you a whole lot about what Iraq was like under Saddam and who he was connected with.
BTW, the WMD went over the border to Syria in the months leading up to the war.
I'd say that any realistic assessment of what it takes to defend this country in the post-9/11 era starts with tackling the phenomenon of terrorism; tackling terrorism starts with going after their major sources of support, which are the state sponsors; and that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was not only among the foremost of the state sponsors, but was also heavily entwined in the greatest variant of the terrorism threat (NBC terror), and not insignificantly was in an ongoing state of war with the United States dating back a decade.
Saying the only objective is OBL betrays a profound misunderstanding of our security situation. OBL is a symptom of a global problem, and is not in any significant way its leader.
The answer is not that we went after Iraq directly because of 9/11, but indirectly because the president was resolved not to wait until we are hit first again.