After submitting the Wartime Budget, President Bush stated: “I’ve just met with our leaders here at the Pentagon, who are monitoring the course of our battle to free Iraq and rid that country of weapons of mass destruction [WMD]. Our coalition is on a steady advance. We’re making good progress… Our coalition is strong. It’s bound together by the principle of protecting not only this nation, but all nations from a brutal regime that is armed with weapons that could kill thousands of innocent people. America has more than 200,000 men and women engaged in Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
– George W. Bush, “President Submits Wartime Budget,” George W. Bush – White House Archives online, March 25, 2003