On February 12, 2002, Secretary of State Colin “Powell testified before the Senate Budget Committee. He took a hard line on Saddam, noting that since 1998 the policy of the United States had been ‘regime change’ in Iraq. ‘And we are looking at a variety of options that would bring that about,’ he said. And in a formulation intended to calm the waters, Powell added that President Bush ‘has no plan on his desk right now to begin a war with any nation.’ War was not imminent.”
– Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack, Page 103