Reddit reviews America's Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between America and Its Enemies

A bit farther back in history, during the Cold War, the United States employed Russian tactics of using guerrilla factional disputes to their advantage by training and arming said factions. The primary principle was to create a buffer zone for weak war fronts.

The US used this strategy (to EXCELLENT effect) against Russia throughout the Cold War arming extremist muslim guerilla factions...most notably to Afghanistan when the USSR invaded in an attempt to "break the line" so-to-speak. The Afghani guerillas maintained a strong defense and managed to contain the USSR and it's communist agenda within it's borders.

Once the conflict was over, the US basically just packed up and went home, leaving a miserable amount of discontent, war-ridden guerrilla fighters in their poor, desperate desert country to fend for themselves...many of whom were exiled for their extremist views. This left quite a bitter taste in the newly trained and armed, however scattered, populous of Afghanistan. The threads of Al Qaeda slowly starting to weave together from this point on.

Edit: America's Secret War by George Friedman, founder and CEO of STRATFOR, can do a much better job delving into the specifics if you're interested. It's a fantastic read by a man with a wonderful and unique perspective on the geopolitical game of chess America has been playing for the past half-century.

Actually, the historical links between AQ and Iraq were only a small part of the justification. More important was any possible future connections Iraq and AQ, something the administration was not willing to take a risk on given the events on 9/11, and some very, very big WMD scares that occurred in the immediate aftermath, including the threat of a rouge soviet suitcase nuke loose in NYC, that was brought to our attention by 3 independent intelligence sources shortly following 9/11 (see below).

The Iraq Resolution cited many factors as justifying the use of military force against Iraq:

• Iraq's noncompliance with the conditions of the 1991 ceasefire agreement, including interference with U.N. weapons inspectors.
  
• Iraq "continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability" and "actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability" posed a "threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region."
  
• Iraq's "brutal repression of its civilian population."
  
• Iraq's "capability and willingness to use weapons of mass destruction against other nations and its own people".
  
• Iraq's hostility towards the United States as demonstrated by the 1993 assassination attempt on former President George H. W. Bush and firing on coalition aircraft enforcing the no-fly zones following the 1991 Gulf War.
  
• Members of al-Qaeda, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq.
  
• Iraq's "continu[ing] to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations," including anti-United States terrorist organizations.
  
• Iraq paid bounty to families of suicide bombers.
  
• The efforts by the Congress and the President to fight terrorists, and those who aided or harbored them.
  
• The authorization by the Constitution and the Congress for the President to fight anti-United States terrorism.
  
• The governments in Turkey, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia feared Saddam and wanted him removed from power.
  
• Citing the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, the resolution reiterated that it should be the policy of the United States to remove the Saddam Hussein regime and promote a democratic replacement.
  
  We invaded Iraq for multiple reasons:
  
  

1. Most important was geopolitics / real politik - Put American firepower in the heart of the ME with the ability to strike anywhere in the ME at a moments notice, especially Iran.
   
   However, attacking and occupying Iraq achieves three things:
   
   It takes out of the picture a potential ally for al Qaeda, one with sufficient resources to multiply the militant group’s threat. Whether Iraq has been an ally in the past is immaterial – it is the future that counts.
   
   It places U.S. forces in the strategic heart of the Middle East, capable of striking al Qaeda forces whenever U.S. intelligence identifies them.
   And possibly most important - a decisive win in Iraq would change the perception of America, which had taken a SERIOUS hit after Black Hawk Down, and Americas resulting retreat under Clinton from the Muslim world, and the perception the America was vulnerable/weak after 9/11.
   
   America need to prove to the Muslim world that it would not take an attack on American soil lightly, and anyone who dared tried ever again would reap the same fate as Iraq.
   
   In early September 2002, Stratfor published a war plan series in which we laid out four possible U.S. strategies for invading Iraq. The war aims listed at that time consisted of:
   
   >Replacing Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s regime with one compatible with U.S. interests. Maintaining the territorial integrity of Iraq so that it remains a counterweight to Iran, and so that nationalist ambitions by ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq do not disrupt U.S.-Turkish relations. Eliminating the threat of weapons of mass destruction by having total direct access to all of Iraq. Changing the perception of American effectiveness in the Islamic world. Destroying collaboration between Iraq and al Qaeda. Minimizing U.S. casualties.
   
   https://fabiusmaximus.com/2008/03/04/stratfor-iraq-goals/
   
   
2. Invading Iraq allowed us to put the screws to SA. Having 100,000 US troops on SA boarder allowed us to have a lot of leverage, which worked very much in our favor.
   
   >Friedman's book explores the Byzantine details of American and Islamist Realpolitik in a fairly balanced way. He argues that the invasion of Iraq was not completely about WMDs or connections to Al Qaeda or even about oil, but was intended to show the Islamic world (and particularly Saudi Arabia and Pakistan) that the United States meant business and that those who didn't get with the program were going to be dealt with very harshly. The fact that the United States has substantial ground and air forces within easy striking distance of Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia, among others, has no doubt been noticed by the leaders of those countries, dampening their enthusiasm for tolerating Al Qaeda.
   
   
3. WMD was a real threat (and chemical weapons were found during the invasion, and 600+ soldiers suffered as a result to exposure) - especially after 3 independent intelligence sources alerted the US to a threat of a loose Soviet suitcase nuclear bomb headed for New York and how that changed the course of the war.
   
   http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/bombshell-new-york-times-reports-wmds-found-iraq/
   
   https://theintercept.com/2015/04/10/twelve-years-later-u-s-media-still-cant-get-iraqi-wmd-story-right/
   
   Suitcase nuclear bomb - https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Secret-War-Worldwide-Struggle/dp/0767917855
   
   
4. Iraq's inability to comply with UN WMD inspectors for a decade
   
   https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2002_10/iraqspecialoct02
   
   
5. We got hoodwinked by Iran/Russia - They knew if we destabilized Iraq, they would fill the power vacuum in the capital, and that played out EXACTLY like they (Iran/Russia) thought it would, as they now control Baghdad.
   
   WMD was a key selling point for the Iraq war, but it wasn't the wars only reason.
   

Fred Burton was a founding member of the United States' Diplomatic Security Service. He was the DSS's specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, over time he came to be the head of the Counter Terrorism division as well as the vice director of the DSS. His office predicted an Al Qaeda strike against the US but decide the threat wasnt valid enough. He was involved in the arrest Ramzi Yousef and brought up warrants for Imad Mugniyah. He wrote the book Ghost, which is very fun to read.

Edit: For must Reads:The Encyclopedia of the CIA, America's Secret War, and Spies Among Us. Also the aforementioned Ghost and Chasing Shadows