“Some senior [Bush] administration officials, led by Paul D. Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense, and I. Lewis Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, are pressing for the earliest and broadest military campaign against not only the Osama bin Laden network in Afghanistan, but also against other suspected terrorist bases in Iraq and in Lebanon’s Bekaa region. These officials are seeking to include Iraq on the target list with the aim of toppling President Saddam Hussein, a step long advocated by conservatives who support Mr. Bush. A number of conservatives circulated a new letter today [September 20, 2001] calling on the president to ‘make a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power’ even if he cannot be linked to the terrorists who struck New York and Washington last week.”
– Patrick E. Tyler and Elaine Sciolino, “Bush’s Advisers Split on Scope Of Retaliation,” The New York Times, Sep. 20, 2001