On September 14, 2001, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith and Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Peter Rodman proposed in a strategy memo for the War on Terrorism: ” ‘The immediate priority targets for initial action’ should be al Qaida, the Taliban, and Iraq. Iraq was on this list, we noted, because Saddam Hussein’s regime posed a ‘threat of WMD terrorism,’ and was systematically undermining the ten-year-old efforts of the United States and the United Nations to counter the dangers of his regime. …The purpose of a campaign in Iraq, we noted, would be ‘to destabilize a regime that engages in and supports terrorism, that has weapons of mass destruction and is developing new ones, that attacks U.S. forces almost daily [by firing on U.S. warplanes enforcing the Iraqi no-fly zones] and otherwise threatens vital U.S. interests.’ ”
– Douglas Feith, War and Decision, Pages 51-52