There was a group of neoconservatives called Project For A New American Century who were publicly urging Clinton to invade Iraq in the late 90's. That group was made up of what became the who's who of the Bush Admin. Rumsfeld, Cheney et. al. and their mouthpieces in the media were all involved with this group. They wanted the US to go on a massive nation building spree in the Middle East to 'fix' the region. Once elected, Bush chose many involved with that group to high places in his admin. Then 9/11 happened.
To be clear, I'm not suggesting 9/11 was an inside job or any of that crap. Its just that, those who were making the decisions at the time, were already predisposed to use the US military for nation building. Now they had the chance.....
Former General of the US Army Wesley Clark on the military strategy after 9/11 attacks: "We are going to take out 7 countries in 5 years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and finishing it off with Iran" [2007]
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/14 ... 0845800448