"You blithely say "everyone knew it" even though Bush was busy denying."

For example, Newsday (New York, NY) October 04, 2002
[2 months before Dec. 18, 2002]
"Washington - Under the cover of training exercises and other routine activities, the Pentagon is quietly fortifying troops and equipment already in the Persian Gulf region that could be shifted quickly to an Iraqi invasion, cutting from months to weeks the time needed to launch an attack, military analysts say.
...
Military analysts say the moves, combined with previous efforts to stockpile equipment throughout the gulf, mean the United States has supplies in place, or nearby, to support as many as 35,000 troops. That would dramatically shorten the time needed to act on a presidential order to invade, perhaps to as little as three weeks under scenarios calling for a small, lightning-quick force designed to take Baghdad and topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime.
A second analyst, Anthony Cordesman, believes the Qatar exercise, plus other so-far-unannounced exercises expected by year's end, would put the United States in position to strike Iraq by sometime in December. After that, "the United States and Britain could go to war at virtually any time," said Cordesman, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Some military officials have suggested January or February would be the best time, so soldiers wearing chemical-protection suits could avoid summer's searing heat. "
http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2002/021004-iraq1.htm

This took about 30 seconds to find.

So, where your citation of "Bush was busy denying."?