Iraq War

The Iraq War, also known as the Occupation of Iraq, the Second Gulf War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is an ongoing conflict which began on March 20, 2003 with the United States-led invasion of Iraq.

Politicians

• I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is — my point is, there's a strong will for democracy.
  • George W. Bush cited in Dismisses Bloodshed In Iraq As 'Just A Comma' at crooksadillers 23 September, 2006: Bush was asked if Iraq on the verge of a civil war.

• "Saddam is gone. It's a good thing, but I don't agree with what was done. It was a big mistake. The American government made several errors, one of which is how easy it would be to get rid of Saddam and how hard it would be to unite the country." - Bill Clinton [1]
• "In my opinion, it disrespects the United Nations. It doesn't take into account what the rest of the world thinks. And I think this is serious." - Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva [2]
• "To a certain extent Saddam Hussein's departure was a positive thing. But it also provoked reactions, such as the mobilization in a number of countries, of men and women of Islam, which has made the world more dangerous." – Jacques Chirac [3]
• "If you look at those matters, you will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace. Because what America is saying is that if you are afraid of a veto in the Security Council, you can go outside and take action and violate the sovereignty of other countries. That is the message they are sending to the world. That must be condemned in the strongest terms." – Nelson Mandela [4][5]
• "The option of war can appear initially to be the most rapid. But let us not forget that after winning the war, peace must be built." – Dominique de Villepin

• In this case, the 'liberal media' didn't live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.
  • Bush press secretary Scott McClellan, What Happened

• As I have heard Bush say, only a wartime president is likely to achieve greatness, in part because the epochal upheavals of war provide the opportunity for transformative change of the kind Bush hoped to achieve. In Iraq, Bush saw his opportunity to create a legacy of greatness.
  • Bush press secretary Scott McClellan, on Bush's need to be a wartime president to improve the chance of a "great" legacy, What Happened, pp. 131

• As a Texas loyalist who followed Bush to Washington with great hope and personal affection and as a proud member of his administration, I was all too ready to give him and his highly experienced foreign policy advisers the benefit of the doubt on Iraq. Unfortunately, subsequent events have showed that our willingness to trust the judgment of Bush and his team was misplaced.
  • Bush press secretary Scott McClellan, What Happened [6]

• "Why don't they ask [Saddam's intelligence chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush] to give us something we can use to help us make our case [to link 9/11 and Saddam]?"
  • from Ron Suskind, The Way of the World, p. 364, on Bush's frustration at the results of secret meetings between British intelligence and Saddam's intelligence chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush [by Bush, 2003]

• They're not going to like this downtown.
  • Then-CIA director George Tenet, upon learning in early 2003 that, in secret meetings between between British intelligence and Saddam's intelligence chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush, Habbush claimed Iraq had no WMD; Ron Suskind, The Way of the World
  • "Downtown" refers to the White House. [about Bush]

• The White House then buried the Habbush Report. They instructed the British that they were no longer interested in keeping the channel open. [Rob Richer, the CIA‘s Near East Division head]: "Bush wanted to go to war in Iraq from the very first few days he was in office. Nothing was going to stop that."
  • Ron Suskind, The Way of the World; p. 367 [about Bush]

• The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001. It said that 9/11 ring leader Mohammed Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq—thus showing finally that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the Vice Presidents Office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link.
  • Ron Suskind, The Way of the World; p. 371 [about Bush]

• It's an intelligence document written by the then head of Iraqi intelligence, Habbush to Saddam. It's dated the 1st of July, 2001. And it‘s basically a memo saying that Mohammed Atta has successfully completed a training course at the house of Abu Nidal, the infamous Palestinian terrorist, who, of course, was killed by Saddam a couple of months later. Now, this is the first, really, concrete proof that al Qaeda was working with Saddam. It‘s a very explosive development
  • Con Coughlin, Sunday Telegraph; December 14, 2003 on Meet the Press; [7]
  • See Ron Suskind quotes on validity of the document. [about Bush]

2008

• [Habbush] tells us there are no WMDs. He tells us Saddam's mindset, that he's afraid of the Iranians more than us, afraid of being showed to be a toothless tiger. That is something we ignore.
  • Ron Suskind, on meetings between British intelligence and Saddam Hussein's intelligence chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush, demonstrating Saddam's claim in jail years later that he didn't disclose his lack of WMDs for fear of Iran's perception of Iraq is not the first time the U.S. learned of it, on The Daily Show; August 11, 2008

• Stewart: And the letter says literally in it Mohammad Atta did train in Iraq, and the uranium thing. Did anyone think it was weird that the letter combined the two things that were in question, that in the letter it said, Oh, and he did buy uranium from Niger...?
  Suskind: ... It was an overreach moment. The letter popped up. Tom Brokaw did it on Meet the Press. William Safire writes about it. A couple days in, about a week in, people are just like, Geez, it's an awful lot in one letter. And that overreach kind of revealed it to be fraudulent.
  Stewart: Why didn't anyone pursue it at that time, the fraudulent nature of it? Why did that just fall away?
  Suskind: It was hard to get at. It's a closely held thing, and this is an operation through the CIA. You need someone who's going to stand up in daylight and say, Hey, this is what happened.
  Stewart: Your source in the CIA, Richard?
  Suskind: He's one of the folks.
  Stewart: He now says, I never said that; I was just kidding around. What's the situation with that?
  Suskind: He's a good guy. All the [sources] involved here are good guys, walking around with a kind of lump in their chest for awhile. I'm sympathetic to all the sources. They're under a lot of pressure. In this particular part of the book, there are a lot of disclosures, but this one, the White House is obviously intensely interested in, since there may be illegality that has constitutional consequences.
  Stewart: That is maybe the nicest way of saying "impeachment" I think I've ever heard in my life.
  • Ron Suskind, on CIA involvement in the fraudulent letter by Tahir Habbush claiming a link between Iraq, Atta, and Niger uranium, on The Daily Show; August 11, 2008

Military leaders

• Who will demand accountability for the failure of our national political leadership involved in the management of this war? They have unquestionably been derelict in the performance of their duty. In my profession, these types of leaders would immediately be relieved or court martialed.
  • Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, 10-12-07, [8]

Authors

• [T]here is no longer a preponderance of military force that allows the West to impose its will, the U.S. defeat in Iraq being the most extraordinary illustration of that fact.
  • Jean Bricmont (2006), Humanitarian Imperialism, Monthly Review Press, p. 14.

Religious leaders

• It is not too late to stop this war. We must march until there is a declaration of peace and reconciliation.
  • Jesse Jackson cited in Politicians, human rights activists and celebrities joined millions of ordinary people on the streets of Europe on Saturday to protest against a rush to war with Iraq. These are some of their views at CNN.com, 16 February 2003 Jackson was asked about his views on the build up before the Iraq war.

• "When war, as in these days in Iraq, threatens the fate of humanity, it is ever more urgent to proclaim, with a strong and decisive voice, that only peace is the road to follow to construct a more just and united society. Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of man." – Pope John Paul II [9][10][11]

Entertainers

• "The British and American governments are about to destroy all hopes for peace anywhere in our world for ever. This war has already begun." - Vanessa Redgrave [12]

See also

• Politics: Iraq War