“By the time U.S. forces began pouring into Iraq, repeated polls [including a Pew Research Center poll of February 2003] showed that a majority of the American public believed that Saddam was behind the attacks of September 11.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, […]
Category: quotes
2/15/2003
“On February 15, 2003, as many as 10 million people worldwide took part in demonstrations against the looming Iraq War. It was one of the biggest global protests ever- but the invasion still went ahead.” – Andrew Langley, Bush, Blair, and Iraq: Days of Decision, Page 28 […]
2/15/2003
“When Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki told Congress in February 2003, just weeks before the invasion, that several hundred thousand troops would be needed in postwar Iraq, both [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld and [Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul] Wolfowitz publicly attacked him, since they had both been arguing that the war could be […]
2/14/2003
“In a [February 14, 2003] speech at FBI headquarters, President Bush said, ‘We’re trying to protect you. We’re doing everything in our power to make sure the homeland is secure.’ Intelligence officials quoted at the time said they had identified six hundred to one thousand potential al Qaeda terrorists in cells around the United States. […]
2/14/2003
According to a February 14, 2003, report to the UN by chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, in regards to weapons inspections: “Iraq was still cooperating on process but not on substance…citing a document indicating that Iraq had one thousand tons of a chemical agent that inspectors could not actually find. ‘One must not jump to […]
2/14/2003
“On February 14, 2003, [chief UN weapons inspector Hans] Blix told the [UN] Security Council that, of the chemical and biological samples the team had collected so far, three-fourths had been analyzed. All of the results had been consistent with Iraqi declarations.” – Deepak Tripathi, Overcoming the Bush Legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan, Page 63 […]
2/14/2003
“By February 14 [2003], after having combed through more than three hundred sites in Iraq unimpeded for eleven weeks, U.N. inspectors had still found nothing, which only proved, said the neocons, that they were dupes. ‘U.N. weapons inspectors are being seriously deceived,’ declared [Defense Policy Board Adviser] Richard Perle. ‘It reminds me of the way […]
2/14/2003
“Saddam [Hussein] had presented a massive document to the UN [in December 2002], claiming that he had no WMD. [Chief UN weapons inspector] Hans Blix had corroborated this, by stating to the Security Council on 14 February, 2003, that the UN team had found no WMD in Iraq. [President] Bush rejected these findings, however, insisting […]
2/14/2003
The Blix Report, released by chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix on February 14, 2003, “described the finding of imported material for longer-range missiles in breach of UN resolutions; the difficulties of tracking down the anthrax and VX nerve agent, without greater Iraqi cooperation; and it concluded: ‘If Iraq had provided the necessary cooperation in […]
2/14/2003
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld delivered a speech titled ‘Beyond Nation Building’ in New York on February 14, 2003. ” ‘Well-intentioned foreigners’ who practice nation-building, he said, ‘come in with international solutions to local problems’ and ‘can create a dependency’ that produces ‘unintended adverse side effects.’ A ‘long-term foreign presence in a country can be […]