“Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror,’ said [President] Mr. Bush [in his State of the Union address on January 29, 2002]. ‘The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens–leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to inspections, then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the outside world. States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.’ ”
– Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall, Page xxxii