Actually Bush stated that freeing the people of Iraq was a one of the primary reasons for going in. He said that when he announced to the country that the war had started...
Also The final report if you would read it tells us that the inspectors found that most factories were set up so that they could easily and quickly converted to produce WMD. This was a very well planned set up, It was believed that Saddam was simply waiting for the inspectors to leave and sanctions to be lifted.
Freeing the people of Iraq was "one" of the missions in the resolution supporting armed conflict (because in "newspeak" we can't simply call it what it is - a declaration of war). It was far from the primary reason or something considered to be anything other than a fringe benefit.
You and I both know the American people and the congress would have never supported the war build up if it wasn't proximately tied to our security. That's why it was all about WMDs until we couldn't find any WMDs. I mean hell, have you forgotten the run up to the war? Colin Powell's disgraceful speech to the UN? The Yellowcake from Africa that got Valarie Plame outed? I mean, I am not a conspiracy theorist, but that doesn't mean I forgot the past.
Do I think Bush believed there were WMDs in Iraq? Yes I do. I don't think he "intentionally" deceived the American people. I just think he gambled on the most important decision of his presidency on an assumption that "surely Saddam wouldn't discontinue his WMD programs after being beaten into submission in the first Gulf War". I think, based on that assumption, the facts became "self evident" to the Bush administration and it turned into the self licking ice cream cone and we went to war to prevent Iraq from using or distributing something they didn't have.
A man with any integrity would have resigned. Bush had no integrity, so he changed the misison to "spreading democracy".
If the rubes want to believe that shit, go for it. I, however, remember it all with clarity.
In fact, I remember those days well. Sitting in my uniform in Hawaii wondering when I would see Afghanistan and watching the subtle saber rattling about Iraq from Bush Administration cronies turn into a full fledged war cry until I called my buddy in the 101st on his way over and (after we both shared the obligatory "what the ****?") wished him Godspeed and safety.
The way the administration sold that war was brilliant. Obviously, as we now have people who can't even remember what the **** we went to war for.