When the topic of Iraq was brought up at the Bush Administration’s first National Security Council meeting on January 30, 2001, “Without mentioning any threat, [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice asserted that ‘Iraq might be the key to reshaping the entire region.’ According to Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill, who attended the meetings, no one even questioned why Iraq should be invaded. ‘From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,’ said O’Neill. ‘It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying *Go find me a way to do this.* ‘ ”
– Craig Unger, The Fall of the House of Bush, Page 201