Goerge Bush's own words..
The October anthrax attacks intensified the alarmist mood. In the days after October 2, 2001, anthrax-laced letters arrived at the National Enquirer; ABC, NBC and CBS News; and the Senate offices of Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Altogether, 17 people were infected. Five died.
From the memoirs of George W. Bush, pages 157-158.
"One of the letters containing anthrax read:
09-11-01
YOU CAN NOT STOP US.
WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX.
YOU DIE NOW.
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ARE YOU AFRAID?
DEATH TO AMERICA.
DEATH TO ISRAEL.
ALLAH IS GREAT.
I was struck by a sickening thought: Was this the second wave, a biological attack? ... The biggest question during the anthrax attack was where it was coming from. One of the best intelligence services in Europe said it suspected Iraq."
And now the key line, on page 159: "We believed more attacks were coming, but we didn't know when, where, or from whom. ... As time passed, some critics charged that we inflated the threat or manipulated alert levels for political benefit. They were flat wrong. We took the intelligence seriously ..."
Bush's account of his decision-making in his Iraq chapter will likely seem stunted to many readers. He offers considerable detail on the milestones toward the decision -- and yet readers will search in vain for the actual moment at which the decision occurred.
On page 251, he "wasn't ready to move yet." On page 252, "I was deeply disappointed that diplomacy had failed." On page 253, "Military action was my last resort. But I believed it was necessary."
The how is all there. But a big part of the why is here:
"I remembered the shattering pain of 9/11, a surprise attack for which we received no warning. This time we had a warning like a blaring siren."
The U.S. had been accepting risks from Saddam Hussein for more than a decade. Suddenly those risks were now intolerable. And for all the grief and cost of Saddam's removal, that particular risk now threatens the United States no longer.
Enough said..