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Everyone Has an Opinion on the Iraq War

Everyone seems to have an opinion–and a quote–on the War in Iraq: pro-War, anti-War, prognosticators, Hollywood stars and late night talk show hosts. We have sifted through hundreds of quotes, some as early as 1999, made on the War in Iraq and boiled them down to sixty.

Sixty Quotes on the War in Iraq

“Never in the history of the world has any soldier sacrificed more for the freedom and liberty of total strangers than the American soldier.”
–Zell Miller (D) Georgia 2004

“I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.”
–Vice President Dick Cheney, on the Iraq insurgency, June 20, 2005

“We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country.”
–Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

“Iraq is a manufactured conflict for the sake of geopolitical dominance in the area.”
–Actress/radio host Janeane Garofalo

“There’s a lot of peer pressure to not do positive stories out of Iraq… I think there’s a sense that the administration got a pass during the hot days of war and now that the war is over it’s time to even out the deck somewhat.”
–Jerry Nachman

“Our enemies around the globe gain great advantage by having the United States mired in an Iraqi civil war. Clearly, continuing to pursue the president’s flawed escalation policy until at least July 2008 is not in the national interest of the United States.”
–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

“Iraq began destroying those missiles they don’t have over the weekend. See, President Bush may be the smartest military president in history. First, he gets Iraq to destroy all of their own weapons. Then he declares war.”
–Jay Leno

“Freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.”
-–Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on looting in Iraq after the U.S. invasion, adding “stuff happens,” April 11, 2003

“There’s no connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq.”
–Actor George Clooney

“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”
–-President Bush, standing under a “Mission Accomplished” banner on the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier, May 2, 2003

“I opposed going to war in Iraq. Sen. McCain was one of Washington’s biggest supporters of the war.”
–Presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama D-IL

“I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force– if necessary– to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security.”
–Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002

“The Canadian government continues to say they will not help us if we go to war with Iraq. However, the prime minister of Canada said he’d like to help, but he’s pretty sure that last time he checked, Canada had no army.”
–Late night show host Conan O’Brien

“I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and — you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows — that this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq.”
–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., April 19, 2007

“The president said, “Let’s send some more troops over there, and that will give the Iraqis the time to take care of themselves.” We sent other troops over there, and there are a lot of reasons the surge certainly hasn’t hurt. It’s helped. I recognize that.”
–Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., December 21, 2007

“There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin. I ask them to come back to their senses,”
–Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki after Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton and other U.S. critics who have called for him to be replaced; Aug 26 07

“The former dictator of Iraq will face the justice he denied to millions… It marks the end of the road for him and all who bullied and killed in his name… In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over. A hopeful day has arrived.”
–George W. Bush after the capture of Saddam Hussein, December 15, 2003

“We are ready to sacrifice our souls, our children and our families so as not to give up Iraq. We say this so no one will think that America is capable of breaking the will of the Iraqis with its weapons.”
–Saddam Hussein, before fighting started

“The latest rumor is the United States is working behind the scenes to try to find a ’safe haven’ for Saddam Hussein. See if he agrees to step down and leave Iraq, we will relocate him. What a nightmare, where are you going to send a guy who thinks America is a nest of greedy imperialists intent on bleeding the third world of all their resources? I mean, besides Berkeley?”
–Jay Leno

“For it has been said so truthfully that it is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the agitator, who has given us the freedom to protest. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, serves beneath the flag, whose coffin is draped by the flag, who gives that protester the freedom to abuse and burn that flag.”
–Zell Miller (D) Georgia 2004

“As you know, you go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”
-—Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, responding to a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq who asked him why troops had to dig through scrap metal to armor vehicles, Dec. 8, 2004

“One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line.”
–President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998

“Why do the President and Vice-President constantly change the subject when asked to explain why things are going so badly in Iraq? The answer is simple. They have been consistently wrong about Iraq, and the results speak for themselves.”
–Sen. Patrick Leahy

“With the regime’s feared security forces nowhere to be seen, Iraqis dared to cheer U.S. troops and attack the symbols of Saddam’s rule. They danced in the streets, waving rifles, palm fronds and flags, and defaced posters of the longtime Iraqi president…”
–CBS News report, as U.S. forces entered the city of Bagdad; April 9, 2003

“Experts say that Iraq may have nuclear weapons. That’s bad news - they may have a nuclear bomb. Now the good news is that they have to drop it with a camel.”
–David Letterman

“We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”
–-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, on Iraq’s nuclear capabilities and the Bush administration’s case for war, Sept. 8, 2002

“This is a great day for the new Iraq. These two particular people were at the head of a regime, there wasn’t just a security threat because of its weapons programme, but was responsible, as we can see from the mass graves, for the torture and killing of thousands and thousands of innocent Iraqis. And the celebrations that are taking place are an indication of just how evil they were. And I think what is so important is that people understand that if we are able to make the progress that we want to make in Iraq, that is going to open up not just new opportunities for Iraqi people, it is going to increase the stability of that country, of the region, and therefore the security of the whole of the world. So I think it is a very, very important move forward and I think it is great news.”
–Tony Blair on the killing of Saddam Hussein’s sons, July 23, 2003

“Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process.”
– Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998

“We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction.”
–Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002.

“Saddam Hussein has a long history of harboring terrorists. Carlos the Jackal, Abu Nidal, Abu Abbas, the most notorious terrorists of their era, all found shelter and support at one time in Baghdad. Intelligence sources say bin Laden’s long relationship with the Iraqis began as he helped Sudan’s fundamentalist government in their efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.”
–ABC News report, January 14, 1999

Continue reading: War in Iraq Quotes, Part 2
Part 1
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