“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 […]
Category: quotes
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 […]
3/20/2003
“Tony Blair, talking by telephone with George W. Bush, March 20, 2003. “I kind of think that decisions taken in the next few weeks will determine the rest of the world years to come. As primary players we have the chance to shape the issues.”” – Andrew Langley, Bush, Blair, and Iraq: Days of Decision, […]
3/20/2003
“…U.S. planes started dropping bombs on Baghdad [Iraq] on March 20, 2003, at 5:30 a.m. Baghdad time (9:30 p.m. EST, March 19).” – Vincent Bugliosi, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, Page 135 […]
3/20/2003
“On March 20 [2003], U.S. forces begin bombing Baghdad [Iraq].” – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 305 […]