Five years on: What they said about war on Iraq

THE PRELUDE

GEORGE W BUSH, US president
March 2002
To three US senators:
"Fuck Saddam, we're taking him out."

THE INVASION

GEORGE W BUSH
March 17 2003
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised... Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict commenced at a time of our choosing... (To the Iraqi people:) The tyrant will soon be gone. The day of your liberation is near."

ROBIN COOK, Leader of the Commons
March 17 2003
"(The British people) do not doubt that Saddam is a brutal dictator, but they are not persuaded that he is a clear and present danger to Britain... I intend to join those tomorrow night who will vote against military action now. It is for that reason, and for that reason alone, and with a heavy heart, that I resign from the government."

TONY BLAIR, Prime Minister
March 18 2003
"This is the time not just for this Government - or, indeed, for this Prime Minister - but for this House to give a lead: to show that we will stand up for what we know to be right; to show that we will confront the tyrannies and dictatorships and terrorists who put our way of life at risk; to show, at the moment of decision, that we have the courage to do the right thing."

TIM COLLINS, Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army
March 19 2003
"Your deeds will follow you down history. Iraq is steeped in history. It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood, and the birth of Abraham. Tread lightly there. You will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis. You will be embarrassed by their hospitality, even though they have nothing."

SADDAM HUSSSEIN, Iraqi president
March 20 2003
"The criminal Little Bush has committed a crime against humanity."

SGT. JAMES VILLAFANE, US Army
March 27 2003
After being injured in Nasiriya, Iraq:
"Getting shot at wasn't really that bad. It was the getting shot part that sucked."

THE ADVANCE ON BAGHDAD

MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHAF,
Iraqi Information Minister
April 9 2003
As US tanks rolled into Baghdad:
"There is no presence of the American columns in the city of Baghdad at all. We besieged them and we killed most of them... Today, the tide has turned. We are destroying them."

ANDREW MARR, BBC Political Editor
April 9 2003
"He [Tony Blair] said that they would be able to take Baghdad without a bloodbath and that in the end the Iraqis would be celebrating, and on both those points he has been proved conclusively right."

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, essayist
April 9 2003
"So it turns out that all the slogans of the anti-war movement were right after all... 'No War on Iraq', they said. Indeed, there was barely a 'war' at all. 'No Blood for Oil', they cried, and the oil wealth of Iraq has been duly rescued from attempted sabotage with scarcely a drop spilled."

ALI ISMAEL ABBAS, 12-year-old Iraqi
April 9 2003
After losing both his arms in an American bombing raid:
"I wanted to become an army officer when I grow up, but not anymore. Now I want to become a doctor, but how can I? I don't have hands."

DONALD RUMSFELD, Defence Secretary
April 10 2003
"Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin and Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed brutal dictators, and the Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom."

DONALD RUMSFELD
April 11 2003
On the breakdown of order in post-invasion Iraq:
"Stuff happens."

GEORGE TENET, director of the CIA
April 19 2003
On the legality of invading Iraq:
"It's a slam dunk case."

GORE VIDAL, essayist
April 20 2003
"Export democracy? Are you crazy? We don't have it here for God's sake, why would we export it?"

THE 'VICTORY' SPEECH

GEORGE W BUSH
May 1 2003
On board USS Lincoln:
"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed... America is grateful for a job well done."

FIRST POSTED MARCH 19, 2008