The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We have removed an ally of Al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding.1
And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because that regime is no more.2
In these 19 months that changed the world, our actions have been focused, and deliberate, and proportionate to the offense. We have not forgotten the victims of September 11th — the last phone calls, the cold murder of children, the searches in the rubble. With those attacks, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got.3
— George W. Bush, May 1, 2003
- Iraq and Al Qaeda were not allies
- Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction
- Iraq had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks
The war was the hard part. The hard part was putting together a coalition, getting 300,000 troops over there and all their equipment and winning. And it gets easier. I mean, setting up a democracy is hard, but it is not as hard as winning a war.
-- (Fox News Channel's Fred Barnes, 4/10/03)