Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations were made by U.S. Government officials who claimed that a highly secretive relationship existed between former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the radical Islamist militant organization Al-Qaeda from 1992 to 2003.
"The Sept. 11 commission reported yesterday that it has found no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda, challenging one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the war in Iraq."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47812-2004Jun16.html
"We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.
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"All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations," bin Laden said.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/11/01/binladen.tape/
The U.S. government's total debt in 2001 was $5.8 trillion
Today, ISIS holds a fair amount of territory in both Iraq and Syria — a mass roughly the size of Belgium. One ISIS map, from 2006, shows its ambitions stopping there — though interestingly overlapping a lot of oil fields:
http://www.vox.com/cards/things-about-isis-you-need-to-know/isis-goal-theocracy
"President Obama said on Saturday that the airstrikes and humanitarian assistance drops he ordered last week in Iraq could go on for months, preparing Americans for an extended military presence."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/world/middleeast/iraq.html?_r=0
Current U.S. government's total debt is $17.7 trillion