They were trying to say that at the time.

If you talk to most boomers and even a lot of Gen X they'll say they remember that's what happened. Saying anything else at the time would get you called a conspiracy theorist despite the obvious demonstrable proof that the Iraq war had nothing to do with 9/11.

Even mentioning Abu Grahib would get eye rolls and be meet with coruses of "you just hate America" or "you are one of those 'blame America first' people!"

I think it's safe to say that he used the reactionary climate of the post 9/11 mentality as a vehicle to help jumpstart OIF. But if not a catalyst, it had nothing to do with OIF, you're 100% right. We were taking big steps toward conflict and nothing that was used at that time to justify invasion would have been prevented in the absence of 9/11.

There's a meme from some other site about being old and telling the tale of 2016 to an inquisitive youth. If i remember correctly, it goes along the lines of:

Oh you you wanna hear about 2016? Takes 3 shots of tequila Well it all started in 2015 with this gorilla...

Everything since has been a fucking wild ride. Past couple of years have been relatively tame thankfully. But I can't help feeling like that story arc is not yet finished and it leaves me feeling apprehensive about the conclusion.