While discussing Iraq in the second meeting of the National Security Council, on February 1, 2001, Secretary of State Colin “Powell began by discussing the new strategy for ‘targeted sanctions.’ But, after a moment, [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld interrupted. ‘Sanctions are fine,’ he said. ‘But what we really want to think about is going after Saddam.’ He then launched into an assessment of the broader U.S. goal of getting rid of Saddam and replacing the current regime with one more inclined toward cooperative relations with the United States and its Western allies. ‘Imagine what the region would look like without Saddam and with a regime that’s aligned to U.S. interests,’ Rumsfeld said. ‘It would change everything in the region and beyond it. It would demonstrate what U.S. policy is all about.’ ”
– Ron Suskind, The Price of Loyalty, Page 85