The Bush administration insisted that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and that Hussein was harboring al-Qaeda members. As evidence was not forthcoming to corroborate these charges, and as criticisms of the Bush administration’s motives for war grew, the administration increasingly relied on an Islamophobic narrative to mobilize support at home and abroad. The narrative consisted of three broader justifications for war, each undergirded by an anti-Islam, anti-Muslim bias: to defend the United States against Muslim terrorism (because Islam is violent), to introduce democracy in Muslim countries (because Islam is antidemocratic), and to liberate Muslim women (because Islam is misogynist).

XREF: Connects to broader scholarship on orientalism (Said) and the 'white men saving brown women' trope from Spivak.

Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Intro…, loc. 276