chap31

LIST 31

23 Quotes Regarding the 2003 Invasion of Iraq

“He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.”

–Secretary of State Colin Powell, referring to Saddam Hussein, February 24, 2001

“But in terms of Saddam Hussein being there, let's remember that his country is divided, in effect. He does not control the northern part of his country. We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.”

–National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, explaining why Hussein's Iraq is not a threat, July 29, 2001

“Fuck Saddam. We're taking him out.”

– President George W. Bush, in March 2002, a year before the Iraq invasion (a period when he claims he hadn't yet decided how to handle Hussein)

“Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.”

–Vice President Dick Cheney, August 26, 2002

“From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August.”

–White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, on why the Bush Administration waited until September 2002 to start selling the public on an Iraq attack, September 7, 2002

“There is no doubt that he has chemical weapons stocks. We destroyed some after the Gulf War with the inspection regime, but there is no doubt in our mind that he still has chemical weapons stocks and he has the capacity to produce more chemical weapons. With respect to biological weapons, we are confident that he has some stocks of those weapons and he is probably continuing to try to develop more.”

–Secretary of State Powell, referring to Hussein, September 8, 2002.

“Iraq probably has stocked at least 100 metric tons and possibly as much as 500 metric tons of CW [chemical warfare] agents.”

–Central Intelligence Agency, October 2002

“In defiance of pledges to the UN it has stock-piled biological and chemical weapons. It is rebuilding the facilities used to make those weapons. UN inspectors believe that Iraq could have produced enough biological and chemical agent to kill millions of people.”

–President Bush, October 2, 2002

“Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.”

–President Bush, March 17, 2003

“I have always said to people throughout that…our aim has been the elimination of weapons of mass destruction.”

–UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, March 25, 2003

“The president has made very clear that the reason why we are in Iraq is to find weapons of mass destruction. The fact that we haven't found them in seven or eight days doesn't faze me one little bit. Very clearly, we need to find this stuff or people are going to be asking questions.”

–Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation John Wolf, March 30, 2003

“We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.”

–Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, referring to Iraq's alleged WMD, March 30, 2003

“There is evidence that this war was planned well in advance.”

–Hans Blix, UN Chief Weapons Inspector, April 9, 2003

“We have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction. This is what this war was about and is about. And we have high confidence it will be found.”

–White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, April 14, 2003

“We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories…They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them.”

–President Bush, lying about two weather balloon-inflating stations found in Iraq, May 29, 2003 (he never made this claim again)

“I feel like I've died and gone to hell…. On my good days, I feel like maybe we're at least doing something worthwhile for these people. There aren't many good days. On my bad days, I feel like getting my machine gun and opening up on every one of them.”

–Lori, a US Army private stationed in Baghdad, August 2003

“Please refrain from writing press releases highlighting killing the enemy.”

–Capt. Perry Jarmon, of the Combined Joint Task Force, in an email to a military public relations flak in Iraq, circa October 15, 2003. (Jarmon accidentally sent his email to several prominent media outlets.)

“They used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff. It hurt in a way that people would make up stories that they had no truth about.”

–Private Jessica Lynch, on the myths about her capture and rescue spun by the military and media, November 7, 2003

“I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing.”

–Defense Policy Board member Richard Perle, admitting that the Iraq invasion was illegal, November 19, 2003. (Perle is a leading neoconservative hawk who loudly beat the drum for an Iraq attack.)

“With a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them.”

–Lt. Colonel Nathan Sassaman, stationed in Abu Hishma, Iraq, December 7, 2003

“Any indication that something like that happened would be a very serious matter. But I want to be very clear: we don't, at this point, have any indications that I would consider credible and firm that that has taken place, but we will tie down every lead.”

–National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, squelching the silly theory that Iraq shipped its WMD to Syria right before the invasion, January 9, 2004

“There's plenty of blame to go around. The main problem was that the senior administration officials have what I call faith-based intelligence. They knew what they wanted the intelligence to show. They were really blind and deaf to any kind of countervailing information the intelligence community would produce. I would assign some blame to the intelligence community and most of the blame to the senior administration officials.”

–Greg Thielmann, former director of the Office of Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs in the State Department, February 4, 2004

“There was never a clear and present danger. There was never an imminent threat. Iraq—and we have very good intelligence on this—was never part of the picture of terrorism.”

–Mel Goodman, a veteran CIA analyst who now teaches at the National War College images