In President Bush’s speech in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 7, 2002, “The president likened the threat the country faces today from Iraq to the Cuban missile crisis, which unfolded exactly 40 years ago this month. The comparison was intended, his aides acknowledged, to give the confrontation a sense of urgency and to explain why the United States could wait only weeks or months to disarm the Iraqi leader.”
– David E. Sanger, “Bush Sees ‘Urgent Duty’ to Pre-empt Attack by Iraq,” The New York Times, Oct. 8, 2002