On the evening of March 19, 2003, President Bush “addressed the nation from the Oval Office… ‘On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein’s ability to wage war,’ he said. ‘These are the opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign.’ ” – […]
Category: quotes
3/19/2003
Acting on intelligence that Saddam Hussein and his sons were hiding out at his Dora Farms complex in Iraq on March 19, 2003, President Bush ordered an air strike to deliver bunker-busting bombs on the site. “Saddam, it turned out, was not hit, and when U.S. forces examined the Dora Farms site after the fall […]
3/19/2003
“In the Gulf War of 1991 an attacking force three times the size of the OIF [Operation Iraqi Freedom, launched on March 19, 2003] force was employed to achieve the limited objective of driving Iraqi forces out of tiny Kuwait; however, twelve years later, a comparatively small force was employed on behalf of the much […]
3/19/2003
“The initial invasion force [in Iraq, on March 19, 2003] consisted of 250,000 American troops, 45,000 from the United Kingdom, and small numbers of troops from Poland, Australia, and Denmark. Over time, 33 other countries contributed troops ranging from Italy and Spain, with peaks of 3,200 and 1,300 troops, respectively, to Iceland with 2.” – […]
3/19/2003
“By March [19] 2003, when conflict [in Iraq] began, there were no fewer than seventeen separate UN resolutions on the Iraqi refusal to cooperate with the [UN weapons] inspectors.” – Tony Blair, A Journey, Page 381 […]
3/19/2003
“For the new war [in Iraq, which launched on March 19, 2003]… More than five hundred journalists were ’embedded’ with American and British troops to offer grunt’s-eye views of battle.” – Frank Rich, The Greatest Story Ever Sold, Page 74 […]
3/19/2003
“By the time the war [in Iraq] began [on March 19, 2003], the Iraqi regime boasted that it had recruited four thousand jihad fighters, although U.S. military officials put the figure closer to two thousand.” – Stephen F. Hayes, The Connection, Page 171 […]
3/19/2003
On March 19, 2003, “Senator Robert C. Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat and country orator who had been among the handful of members to argue vociferously against war, made no secret of his gloom. ‘Today, I weep for my country,’ he said, adding: ‘No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent […]
3/19/2003
“On 19 March [2003], special forces started moving into Iraq and the US got an intelligence report that Saddam Hussein and his sons were together in a restaurant and an effort was made to bomb them. …For quite some time they did not know whether or not Saddam Hussein was alive.” – Clare Short, An […]
3/19/2003
President Bush “told [journalist] Bob Woodward…that after giving the order to invade [Iraq] in March [19] 2003, he walked in the White House garden, praying ‘that our troops be safe, be protected by the Almighty.’ As he went into this critical period, he told Mr. Woodward, ‘I was praying for strength to do the Lord’s […]