Bush I -- Iraq invades Kuwait, US chases them back into Iraq with the Iraqi army salting the earth as they went with oil derrick destruction..
[youtube">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOkWEN6kfy4[/youtube">
Conventional wisdom as to why US got involved: Saudi's got nervous, Bush family and Saudi Royal family are tight.
Bush II -- Iraq drags feet on UN weapons inspection mandate(Resolution 1441), US uses (allegedly) intentionally false (see the CIA, Joe Wilson and yellow cake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_uranium_forgeries) intel to bolster their case for invasion. US invades Iraq.
Reasoning: suspected biological/nuclear/chemical weapons production and stockpiling and secondarily to stop Al-Qaeda from gaining a foothold.
- Number of post-1991 functional nuclear/chemical/biological weapons and weapon making facilities found = zero
- Amount of evidence tying Iraq to Al-Quaeda operations = none
Conventional wisdom as to why US got involved: Dunno. Looking at who benefits from war is best way to figure out who was invested in it happening before it started -- uncomfortable questions as to what we were really doing there pop up when you start digging especially surrounding cheney/rumsfeld.
This is mostly off the top of my head. I think I'm close, but likely have some of it wrong.
I'm not THAT old...not as old as Huffstutler anyway. That guy is older than dirt. But I hear he's in the shape of a nineteen year old.