The Bush administration based its rationale for the war principally on the assertion that Iraq , which had been viewed Perception_active by the U.S. as a rogue state since the 1990–1991 Gulf War , supposedly possessed an active weapons of mass destruction ( WMDs ) program , and that the Iraqi government posed Causation a threat to the United States and its coalition allies .

No stockpiles of WMDs or an active WMD program were ever found Know in Iraq .

Bush administration officials made Manufacturing numerous assertions about a purported Saddam-Al-Qaeda relationship and WMDs that were based on sketchy evidence , and which intelligence officials pushed Motion back on .