They said about the Iraq war. Quotes and sayings issued before. And during. And after the war
The Marines faced a major predicament in Iraq. Archival
Donald Rumsfeld is among his troops in Iraq. Archival
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Here are some of the most notable quotes said before, during, and after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 that toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein:
January 29, 2002
US President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union address, referring to Iraq, Iran and North Korea, said: "Countries like this and their terrorist allies are an axis of evil, arming to threaten world peace."
February 2003, <>
Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell told the UN Security Council of what he described as evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, which later proved to be false: "My colleagues, every statement I make today is supported by sources, powerful sources. These are not assertions, what we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on strong intelligence."
July 11, 2002
Richard Perle, chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Council, said at the time: "Support for Saddam, including from within his military organization, will collapse after the first whiff of gunpowder."
September 2002, <>
The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, said at the time: "We will continue to work to avoid a military confrontation or military action, because we believe that it will open the gates of hell in the Middle East."
September 19, 2002
Saddam Hussein said in a letter to the United Nations General Assembly: "I declare before you that Iraq is free of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons."
November 14, 2002
US Secretary of Defense at the time, Donald Rumsfeld, said: "The Gulf War in the nineties lasted five days on the ground. I can't tell you whether the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks, five months, but it certainly won't last any longer."
January 20, 2003
Rumsfeld said of Saddam Hussein's regime: "His regime has a large unaccounted for chemical and biological weapons, including nerve agent, sarin, mustard gas, anthrax, toxins, and possibly smallpox. It has an active program to acquire and develop nuclear weapons."
February 12, 2002
Rumsfeld said: "There are things we know we know. We also know that unknown things are known. That means we know there are some things we don't know. But there are also unknown things that we don't know, things that we don't know we don't know. If one looks through the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that is often difficult."
March 16, 2003
Dick Cheney, then vice president of the United States, said, "I think things got very bad inside Iraq, from the point of view of the Iraqi people, and I actually think we're going to be welcomed as editors."
March 20, 2003
Saddam Hussein said on the first day of the invasion, "The reckless criminal Bush and his associates committed their crime, which was promised by Iraq and humanity."
April 10, 2003
"Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, and Ceausescu at the forefront of brutal, failed tyrants, and the Iraqi people are on their way to freedom," Rumsfeld said.
April 11, 2003
Asked about the chaos in Baghdad after U.S. forces took control of the capital, Rumsfeld said: "Things like that happen... It's untidy, freedom is untidy, and free people have the freedom to make mistakes, to commit crimes, to do bad things."
May 2003, <>
U.S. President George W. Bush, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, said under a sign that read: "Mission Completed: "Major combat operations in Iraq are over. In the battle of Iraq. The United States and our allies won."
September 14, 2003
Cheney told a conservative think tank, "He (Saddam) has long-standing ties to al-Qaeda."
Third of October 2003
"There's no doubt that this guy (Saddam) invested billions in developing illegal weapons of mass destruction programs, and don't let anyone tell you that this didn't pose a significant threat," Cheney said at a political rally in Iowa.
December 13, 2003
Saddam Hussein told the American forces that captured him:
"My name is Saddam Hussein. I am the president of Iraq and I want to negotiate."
December 14, 2003
Paul Bremer, the U.S. governor of Iraq at the time after Saddam Hussein's capture, said, "We caught him."
January 30, 2005
Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said: "This is a historic moment for Iraq, a day when Iraqis raise their heads high by challenging terrorists and starting to write their history with their own hands."
March 31, 2005
Lawrence Silberman, co-chair of the U.S. Intelligence Capabilities Committee on Weapons of Mass Destruction, said, "The intelligence community was completely united, uniformly wrong about the presence of weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq.
March 19, 2006
Iyad Allawi, Iraq's former interim prime minister, said: "We lose an average of 50 or 60 people every day across the country, if not more. If this is not a civil war, only God knows what a civil war is."
Oct 25th, 2006
George W. Bush said, "It is my responsibility to provide the American people with a frank assessment, as we go our way... Certainly, we are winning."
November 2006
Saddam said in a letter after he was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity: "Here I offer myself as a redemption, and if the Most Merciful wants this, he will take her to where he commands, the Almighty with the two friends and the martyrs."
December 20, 2006
In an interview with the Washington Post, Bush said, "We don't win, we don't lose."
December 30, 2006
An unknown man attending Saddam's execution, referring to a cleric whose family was persecuted by him, said: "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada."
Saddam replied with a noose wrapped around his neck: "Is this boiler?" (This is masculinity?).
January 10, 2007
"The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people, and it is unacceptable to me," Bush said. When I make mistakes, the responsibility lies with me."
February 23, 2007
In a speech in Australia, Cheney said: "After radical Muslims have tasted victory in Iraq, they will look for new missions. "Many will head to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban, while others will head to capitals across the Middle East."
November 16, 2007
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of U.S. forces south of Baghdad, said:
"I tell people all the time that one of the ways to train to conduct operations in Iraq is to watch the final season of Al Soprano. You have a sense of conflict between similar individuals."
December 2008, <>
"What I regretted most during the presidency was the failure of intelligence in Iraq," Bush said. "Many people put their reputation on the line and said weapons of mass destruction were a reason to topple Saddam Hussein."
December 14, 2008
Bush said in Baghdad, after an Iraqi journalist called him a dog and threw a shoe at him: "It's like going to a political rally and you find people yelling at you. It's a way to get attention."
Aug 31rd, 2010
Barack Obama, then the US president, said in a televised address: "Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people are now in charge of leading their country's security."
Jun 12th, 2014
Asked if America was considering air strikes to stop the violence, Obama said: "I'm not ruling anything out, because we have an interest in making sure that these radical Islamists don't get a permanent foothold in Iraq or Syria."
Ninth of December 2017
The then Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi, declared victory over ISIS: "Iraqis! Your land has been completely liberated, your usurped towns and villages have returned to the bosom of the homeland, and the dream of liberation has become a reality and belongs to the hand."
George W. Bush:
"The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people, and it is unacceptable to me. When I make mistakes, the responsibility lies with me."
Donald Rumsfeld:
"Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin and Ceausescu at the forefront of brutal and failed tyrants, and the Iraqi people are on their way to freedom."
Colin Powell
Before the Security Council: "My colleagues, every statement I make today is supported by sources, strong sources. These are not assertions. What we present to you are facts and conclusions based on strong intelligence."
Iyad Allawi:
"This is a historic moment for Iraq, a day when Iraqis raise their heads high by challenging terrorists and starting to write their history in their own hands."
Dick Cheney:
"I think things got very bad inside Iraq, from the point of view of the Iraqi people, and I think in fact we're going to be welcomed as editors."