In an appearance on Meet the Press on February 8, 2004, President Bush explained to host Tim Russert his rationalization for war with Iraq, and the apparent lack of WMD in the country. ” ‘First of all, I expected to find the weapons. …I based my decision on the best intelligence possible, intelligence that had been gathered over the years, intelligence that not only our analysts thought was valid but analysts from other countries thought were valid. And I made a decision based upon that intelligence in the context of the war against terror. In other words, we were attacked, and therefore every threat had to be reanalyzed.’ ”
– Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco, Pages 375-376