Iraq was discussed in the second meeting of the National Security Council on February 1, 2001. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld spoke “about how removing Mr. Hussein would ‘demonstrate what U.S. policy is all about’ and help transform the Middle East… Mr. Rumsfeld talked at the meeting ‘in general terms about post-Saddam Iraq, dealing with the Kurds in the north, the oil fields, the reconstruction of the country’s economy, and the *freeing of the Iraqi people* ‘ …”
– Richard W. Stevenson, “Bush Disputes Ex-Official’s Claim that Iraq War was Early Goal,” The New York Times, Jan. 13, 2004