At the time. However, it wasn't part of Colin Powell's briefing (before it all) which is what the world remembers (or at least I don't recall it being a part of it at all). It was in numerous speeches and radio announcements by Bush though. Keep in mind that living next to one of the largest military bases in the U.S. tends to keep some things fresh in my memory. We were big on 'Liberate Iraq' bumper stickers and flags on our cars and our porches. Then they slowly changed over to yellow ribbons and 'Support the Troops' stickers. I recall what I read and saw on tv, but so much has happened over the years now and it has taken twists and turns that I don't think the general public saw coming.

I'll never forget gasping when I learned that even in the VERY BEGINNING of it all the troops HAD ORDERS to let the deserters and POWs walk away WITH THEIR WEAPONS. Everyone here saw it all coming after that. Especially those of us who spent any time at all in central america or south america (many of the people there are famous for switching sides at the drop of a hat depending on which way the wind is blowing - no disrepect intended, just personal experience and heard it from the lips myself of those who lived there at the time - it was strategic to their wellbeing to do so)

There were a lot of embedded media at the time and I remember specifically one soldier watching an Iraqi (who had surrendered) walking away with his weapon and he turned to the media and said he had to follow orders - then he mumbled something along the lines of 'hard to believe a minute ago he was firing at us - this will be bad later on...'

(updated) (sheesh, I can't type today)

>Did these signs and stickers go up before or after the invasion? Here is the part of the blurb you point to that I find most enlightening:
>
>"I'm going to come clean and candid about this - in all honesty, this talk of liberation came out of the blue. Up until about a year ago, I had no idea Iraq was even a problem anymore. Rush wasn't talking about Iraq. Bill O'Reilly wasn't talking about Iraq. Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld and General Powell weren't discussing Iraq on any of the Sunday morning chatter shows. But Mr. Bush declared Iraq a danger, so Iraq was a danger. Mr. Bush told us Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda were connected, so Saddam must have had something to do with September 11. Was Saddam plotting to launch poisonous missiles at us? I didn't know about it until our president told us so. So when Mr. Bush announced it was time for regime change, damn it, it was time for regime change."
>
>>In early 2003 we even had bumper stickers:
>>
>>http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0522-09.htm
>>Each of us has lawn signs and bumper stickers that say "Liberate Iraq." For months, we've stood behind those words with concrete American grit and might
>>
>>In May, people were getting concerned that we wouldn't pull out as soon as Iraq was 'liberated.'
>>
>>I am amazed you don't remember. Of course, that could have been only here...
>>
>>
>>>>>but overall, if he touted the liberation aspect leading up to the invasion, it must have been a pretty minimal effort.
>>>>
>>>>Why, because it didn't register with you? Because you ignored it? It WAS in the media here. Most people focused on Colin Powell's briefing though and disregarded the rest.
>>>
>>>Well, I thought I was following the news reports, but if you say it was reasonably prominent in the administrations exhortations for invading Iraq then I'll take your word for it and assume it just didn't register with me. Though I'm hard pressed to figure out why that would be. Personally I think (and again, I could be wrong) that if there, it was exceedingly minor in amongst all the other rhetoric.