What was the reason for the US invading Iraq?

There are a lot of speculations, reasons and arguments given as to why the US invaded Iraq. All claimed to give the “real reason(s)” for America’s motive in attacking and invading Iraq. However, to keep this site’s purpose to that of a factual response, the answer given here will only be based on what was told to the public (the world) by the US government.

In March 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq and took over the government. The U.S. accused Saddam's regime of "deceiving" United Nations weapons inspectors, rather than voluntarily disarming, as required by a U.N. resolution. Also, Saddam Hussein was accused to be supporting terrorism and as a result, the U.S. invaded the country to disarm it of its weapons of mass destruction (WMD), to end its support for terrorism and to a lesser extent to free the Iraqi people from its cruel and brutal dictatorship - the latter was emphasized much more after no WMD were found. Needless to say, no WMD were found in Iraq which was the main reason given to the public for the United States invasion of Iraq. The UN however, didn't see a need for an invasion which the US ignored and thus, invaded and took over the country single handedly.

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