As a matter of fact, Bush did deliberately infer Saddam was behind the 9/11 attack.
And in fact, most of the country believed Saddam was behind the 9/11 attack.
American attitudes about a connection have changed, firming up the case for war.
www.csmonitor.com
{...
The impact of Bush linking 9/11 and Iraq
American attitudes about a connection have changed, firming up the case for war.
March 14, 2003
WASHINGTON
In his prime-time press conference last week, which focused almost solely on Iraq, President Bush mentioned Sept. 11 eight times. He referred to Saddam Hussein many more times than that, often in the same breath with Sept. 11.
Bush never pinned blame for the attacks directly on the Iraqi president. Still, the overall effect was to reinforce an impression that persists among much of the American public: that the Iraqi dictator did play a direct role in the attacks. A New York Times/CBS poll this week shows that 45 percent of Americans believe Mr. Hussein was "personally involved" in Sept. 11, about the same figure as a month ago.
Sources knowledgeable about US intelligence say there is no evidence that Hussein played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks, nor that he has been or is currently aiding Al Qaeda. Yet the
White House appears to be encouraging this false impression, as it seeks to maintain American support for a possible war against Iraq and demonstrate seriousness of purpose to Hussein's regime.
...}
And I distinctly remember Cheney claiming that Saddam was "only weeks away from developing nuclear weapons".