On March 18, 2003, Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi television. “With a pistol holstered at his right hip, he railed at the ‘American, English and Zionist invading aggressors,’ and warned that they faced defeat. …he denounced Bush’s ultimatum [that Saddam and his sons leave the country] as ‘debased and baseless,’ and said it represented ‘a sick hope’ that ‘he can win the war without having to fight.’ Echoing his prediction that the 1991 war would be the ‘Mother of All Battles,’ Saddam declared, ‘This will be Iraq’s last great battle with the malicious tyrant in our time, and America’s last great war of aggression, too.’
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– Todd S. Purdum and The New York Times Staff, A Time of Our Choosing, Page 79