He made it clear that Iraq was not alone in this group of what he called the Axis of Evil in his State of the Union Address. He included mainly Iraq, Iran and North Korea in this group. It is countries like these that pose a threat to Americans which is why we are acting against them. We can not allow these countries to continue to build weapons of mass destruction and harbor terrorism. If we ignored these countries they would eventually get stronger and it would give terrorist organizations a chance to repeat attacks like that of September 11th against the United States.
The war on Iraq might have had some ulterior motives. These motives differ from the previous reasons stated but it is worth noting that they do exist. The first has to do with President Bush and his administration. After the attacks on September 11th the American people were looking for justice. Someone had to take the blame and then receive the punishment. Without this justice President Bush would be seen as a political failure and would stand no chance to be re-elected. Therefore this group that was held responsible was the Taliban. But most of the Taliban could not be found, and their leader Benladin was hiding somewhere in Afghanistan. After sometime of going after Benladin the Bush administration had to find another target. They chose a country that had been harboring terrorists and had been producing weapons of mass destruction. This country was Iraq. Without the invasion of Iraq, September 11th would have been seen as gone without any response from America. President Bush would have been seen as a failure and the pressure that the American people put on President Bush to respond to the attacks of 9/11 could have been seen as motive for the invasion. .
Another reason why we invaded was to prove the United States as a superpower to the rest of the world. By attacking and defeating Iraq, the United States has secured its dominance over the Middle East over the near future and has gained a strategic position relative to two potential future rivals, Russia and China.