Even domestically, moderate politicians were dragged into it. The narrative had been set up by the hawks and regime changers that if you don’t support invading Iraq, you’re for the terrorists and against America.

Even though the lie of Al Qaeda training on Iraqi soil was paper-thin, anti-war politicians and celebrities were shouted down and shunned. It didn’t matter that it made no sense, that Al Qaeda was expressly against the Saddam regime, the momentum was overwhelming. Everyone wanted to trust in the Bush administration’s war effort. The nation was temporarily unified after 9/11.