“On March 20 [2003], the first full day of the [Iraq] war, [Central Command leader] General [Tommy] Franks reported that Special Forces were in partial control of the western desert area–25 percent of Iraq’s territory, which enabled them to prevent Scud missile firings–as well as the southern oil fields.” – Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack, […]
Category: quotes
3/20/2003
Former House of Commons leader Robin Cook quoted Prime Minister Tony Blair’s address to the U.K. on March 20, 2003, when Blair said: ” ‘Dictators like Saddam, terrorist groups like al-Qa’ida, threaten the very existence of such a world. That is why I have asked our troops to go into action tonight.’ “ Cook commented: […]
3/20/2003
At the start of the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, “The American force totaled 241,000, including both combat and support units in the Persian Gulf region as well as the 4th Infantry Division, moored hundreds of miles from Iraq. It was less than half the number [Secretary of State Colin] Powell had sent […]
3/20/2003
“At six P.M. Baghdad time, March 20 [2003]…the U.S. air campaign against Iraq began. Over the next twenty-four hours, American and British warplanes flew a staggering seventeen hundred combat sorties against hundreds of targets inside Iraq. At the same time, U.S. Navy warships and U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers launched 504 cruise missiles, which systematically […]
3/20/2003
On March 20, 2003, “coalition forces led by [Central Command leader] GEN Tommy Franks invaded Iraq. As bombs fell on Baghdad military targets, 170,000 combat troops moved north out of Kuwait. The ground force was comprised of 120,000 American soldiers and Marines, 45,000 Britons, and 5,000 troops from Australia, Poland, and Denmark. This was a […]
3/20/2003
On March 20, 2003, after Operation Iraqi Freedom commenced, Saddam Hussein appeared on Iraqi television. “He spoke contemptuously of ‘the criminal, junior Bush,’ and told his people, ‘Go, use a sword.’ After a series of rambling denunciations of ‘criminal Zionists and those who have agendas,’ he concluded, ‘God is great and let the losers lose. […]
3/20/2003
Regarding Iraqi funds in American banks that had been frozen, on March 20, 2003: “the president [Bush] signed an executive order transferring the $1.7 billion in frozen Iraqi funds to the [U.S.] Treasury Department and stipulating they ‘should be used…[to] assist in the reconstruction of Iraq.’ “ – Dov S. Zakheim, A Vulcan’s Tale, Page 196 […]
3/20/2003
” ‘War is the last choice,’ he [Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld] declared on the opening night [of the invasion of Iraq, March 20, 2003]. ‘The American people can take comfort in knowing that their country has done everything humanly possible to avoid war and to secure Iraq’s peaceful disarmament.’ “ – Andrew Cockburn, Rumsfeld, […]
3/20/2003
As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary:” “291. Early on the morning of 20 March, US forces crossed into Iraq and seized the port area of Umm Qasr.” – Commissioned by the Prime Minister The Right Honourable Gordon Brown MP, “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry: Executive Summary,” IraqInquiry.org.uk, March 20, […]
3/20/2003
As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary:” “293. At Cabinet on 20 March, Mr Blair concluded that the Government: ‘… should lose no opportunity to propagate the reason, at every level and as widely as possible, why we had arrived at a diplomatic impasse, and why it was necessary to take […]