In a meeting with President Bush on August 5, 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell cautioned against invading Iraq. “Powell said the president had to consider what a military operation against Iraq would do in the Arab world. …The entire region could be destabilized–friendly regimes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan could be put in jeopardy or overthrown. Anger and frustration at America abounded. War could change everything in the Middle East. It would suck the oxygen out of just about everything else the United States was doing, not only in the war on terrorism, but all other diplomatic, defense and intelligence relationships, Powell said.”
– Bob Woodward, Bush at War, Page 332