“In a televised address to the nation on September 7, 2003, [President] Bush declared: ‘In Iraq, we are helping…to build a decent and democratic society at the center of the Middle East. …The Middle East will become a place of progress and peace or it will be an exporter of violence and terror that takes more lives in America and other free nations. The triumph of democracy and tolerance in Iraq, in Afghanistan and beyond would be a grave setback for international terrorism. The terrorists thrive on the support of tyrants and the resentments of oppressed peoples. When tyrants fall, and resentment gives way to hope, men and women in every culture reject the ideologies of terror and turn to the pursuits of peace. Everywhere that freedom takes hold, terror will retreat.’ “
– Jeffrey Record, Wanting War, Pages 110-111