Exhaustive review sponsored by the Pentagon finds NO link between Saddam, al Qaida

Well, here's where we simply disagree. I see Bush's actions as justified. Maybe not for all the reasons the Administration tried to use as their arguments prior to the war. Was there some shortcutting going on with the Administration's prewar arguments, I believe there was. I agree with you that it is quite possible that the Administration concluded that the "selling" of the war to the American people had to be kept simple. And that the sales job was a deliberate distortion. I would definitely be open minded to that argument.

But that is a different argument than saying the Bush Administration had no reason to invade Iraq, and thus Bush was "unjust" in his aggression. The Bush Administration, like the Clinton Administration before them, had just reasons to depose Saddam. At least that's what President Clinton signed off on.

Just because Clinton agreed that it was a just cause, doesn't mean that he thought it was practical. He could easily have believed that it was simply too big of a can of worms to open so late in his Presidency. There are reasons why Clinton, and Poppa Bush before him, deferred to the extent they could regarding deposing Saddam in Iraq. They didn't want to get stuck in the briar patch.

They had no great case to invade and occupy Iraq. WMD had been destroyed. Saddam had let inspectors in and they claimed they accounted for all but relatively small inconsistencies in the records. See the writings of Scott Ritter.

Saddam would not let inspectors back completely on our terms in part because when the inspectors were last there we pentrated by U.S. intellignece:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/unscom/experts/faustian.html

So, Saddam became paranoid.

No fly zones? There was never any specific authorization by the UN of no fly zones. We did this on our own and cited the original authorization of force for Gulf War I but there was a real difference of opinion on legality out in the rest of the world. France withdrew from the coalition when we started bombing Iraq for turning on its radar systems.

http://www.fff.org/comment/com0211h.asp

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/2001/0220nofl.htm

So, as usual, it's not so clear cut and full of dreaded "nuance."

Sanctions and full containment, which is what we had in place, was sufficient punsihment for Iraq when you consider the costs and consequences of invading and occupying, which was not a surprise to anyone. Everyone with two brain cells to rub together knew that the probablilty of things transpiring exactly as they have after occupying Iraq was 99%.