While discussing a response to the 9/11 attacks at Camp David on September 15, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald “Rumsfeld turned the table over to [Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul] Wolfowitz, who began making the case for going after Saddam Hussein. He declared that there was a 10 percent to 50 percent chance that Hussein had been involved in the attacks, although he presented no evidence. Afghanistan would not be a particularly satisfying place to wage a war since it was so primitive that there were few targets; Iraq, on the other hand, had plenty of targets and military action there would be a powerful demonstration that the United States would not sit by idly while a danger like Hussein operated with impunity. [Secretary of State Colin] Powell, [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice, [White House Chief of Staff Andrew] Card, and [Joint Chiefs Chairman General Hugh] Shelton were aggravated. ‘No one will understand or support us doing anything but going after those who attacked us,’ Powell said. Going after Iraq would shatter the emerging coalition. If it was a coalition unwilling to face Iraq, Rumsfeld countered, maybe ‘it is not a coalition worth having.’ ”
– Peter Baker, Days of Fire, Page 144