History...
In 1998, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the "Iraq Liberation Act".
The act made it official U.S. policy to "support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power..."
although it also made clear that "nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize or otherwise speak to the use of United States Armed Forces."
----------------------------------------------------
Before the election in 2000...
The Republican Party's campaign platform in the 2000 election called for "full implementation" of the Iraq Liberation Act and removal of Saddam Hussein;
Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz, advocates of invading Iraq, contributed to a September 2000 report from the Project for the New American Century that argued for using an invasion of Iraq as a means for the U.S. to "play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security..