On September 20, 2001, “more than three dozen leading neoconservatives and their like-minded political allies on Iraq published an open letter to President Bush that endorsed al Qaeda’s destruction and urged the president to target other hostile groups and states as well. The letter suggested that Iraq might have provided assistance to the 9/11 perpetrators but insisted that ‘even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the attack, any strategy aimed at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power.’ The letter warned that ‘[f]ailure to undertake such an effort will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism.’ ”
– Jeffrey Record, Wanting War, Pages 47-48