“In his State of the Union address [on January 20, 2004], the president [Bush] again downgrades his rhetoric on WMDs in the wake of [Iraq Survey Group leader] David Kay’s failure to find Saddam’s stockpiles: …’Had we failed to act, the dictator’s [Saddam’s] weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day. Had we failed to act, [UN] Security Council resolutions on Iraq would have been revealed as empty threats, weakening the defiance by dictators around the world. Iraq’s torture chambers would still be filled with victims, terrified and innocent. The killing fields of Iraq, where hundreds of thousands of men and women and children vanished into the sands, would still be known only to the killers. For all who love freedom and peace, the world without Saddam Hussein’s regime is a better and safer place.’ ”
– Frank Rich, The Greatest Story Ever Sold, Pages 300-301