Quotations on Iraq.
Here are some quotations about the war in Iraq. Can you guess the sources?
The threat posed by Saddam Hussein may not be imminent, but it is real, it is growing, and it cannot be ignored.
(*) Tom Daschle, Democratic Senator from South Dakota, 10 October 2002.
Whereas Iraq both poses a continuing threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region and remains in material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations by, among other things, continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability, actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability, and supporting and harboring terrorist organizations…
(†) United States Congress, joint resolution, 11 October 2002.
Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option.
(‡) George W. Bush, State of the Union, 28 January 2003,
The gravity of this moment is matched by the gravity of the threat that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction pose to the world. Let me now turn to those deadly weapons programs and describe why they are real and present dangers to the region and to the world.
(§) Secretary of State Colin Powell, remarks to the UN Security Council, 5 February 2003.
We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We’re bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We’re pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes.… Our mission continues. Al Qaeda is wounded, not destroyed. The scattered cells of the terrorist network still operate in many nations, and we know from daily intelligence that they continue to plot against free people. The proliferation of deadly weapons remains a serious danger.
(**) George W. Bush, aircraft carrier speech, 1 May 2003.
There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud.
(††) Democratic Senator from Massachusetts Ted Kennedy, 18 September 2003.
We are still very much in the collection and analysis mode, still seeking the information and evidence that will allow us to confidently draw comprehensive conclusions to the actual objectives, scope and dimensions of Iraq’s WMD activities at the time of Operation Iraqi Freedom.… With the regime of Saddam Hussein at an end, ISG [Iraq Survey Group] has the opportunity for the first time of drawing together all the evidence that can still be found in Iraq—much evidence is irretrievably lost—to reach definitive conclusions concerning the true state of Iraq’s WMD program.… Saddam, at least as judged by those scientists and other insiders who worked in his military-industrial programs, had not given up his aspirations and intentions to continue to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Even those senior officials we have interviewed who claim no direct knowledge of any ongoing prohibited activities readily acknowledge that Saddam intended to resume these programs whenever the external restrictions were removed. Several of these officials acknowledge receiving inquiries since 2000 from Saddam or his sons about how long it would take to either restart CW [chemical weapon] production or make available chemical weapons.
(‡‡) David Kay, head of the Iraq Survey Group, charged with finding Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, testimony to Congress, 2 October 2003.
Well, we have found right now—and we’re still finding them—over two dozen laboratories that were hidden in the Iraqi intelligence service, the Mukhabarat, were not declared to the UN, had prohibited equipment, and carried on activities that should have been declared. Now, at the minimum, they kept alive Iraq’s capability to produce both biological and chemical weapons. We found assassination tools. So we know that, in fact, they had a prohibited intent to them.
(§§) David Kay, television interview, 5 October 2003.
The director of an American spy agency said today that he believed that material from Iraq’s illicit weapons program had been transported into Syria and perhaps other countries as part of an effort by Iraqis to disperse and destroy evidence immediately before the war last spring.
(***) The New York Times reporting on statements made to reporters by James R. Clapper, head of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, 28 October 2003.
The United States believes it has gathered intelligence pointing to the man financing and coordinating attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq… Former Iraqi Gen. Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri is suspected of carrying out the attacks, possibly with help from Iraqi regime loyalists and “foreign fighters,” sources said.… Pentagon officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the capture of several suspected members of Ansar al-Islam within the past week in northern Iraq provided the intelligence that points toward al-Duri. Several suspects, including one said to be very close to al-Duri, said the general was the mastermind behind many of the attacks.
(†††) CNN, 29 October 2003.
The people who mounted the attacks on the Red Cross are not the Iraqi Vietcong. They are the Iraqi Khmer Rouge—a murderous band of Saddam loyalists and Al Qaeda nihilists, who are not killing us so Iraqis can rule themselves. They are killing us so they can rule Iraqis. Have you noticed that these bombers never say what their political agenda is or whom they represent? They don’t want Iraqis to know who they really are. A vast majority of Iraqis would reject them, because these bombers either want to restore Baathism or install bin Ladenism.…Many liberals oppose this war because they can’t believe that someone as radically conservative as George W. Bush could be mounting such a radically liberal war. Some, though, just don’t believe the Bush team will do it right.
(‡‡‡) Tom Friedman, 30 October 2003.