"If I knew then what I know
now about
what kind of situation we would be in, I would have opposed the
war." - William F. Buckley, preeminent conservative
commentator and founder of the National Review. [The Hill]
"I would not have voted for [President
Bush's] tax cut, based on what I know. . . . There is no doubt that
the people at the top who need a tax break the least will get the
most benefit. . . . Too often presidents do things that don't end up
helping the people they should be helping, and their staffs won't
tell them their actions stink on ice." - Former North
Carolina Senator Jesse Helms. [Washington Post]
"What the hell! What are these guys
thinking about? . . . Can't you get these guys back in the box?" -
Secretary of State Colin
Powell to General Hugh Shelton after Rumsfeld had
brought up the possibility of attacking Iraq in a September 16, 2001
National Security Council meeting. [Slate's
"Condensed Bob Woodward"; Woodward, "Plan of Attack,"
p.25]
"[How much Iraq has in the way of WMD's]
can be debated." - Former U.S. President George H. W.
Bush, in a speech given February 26, 2003, just weeks before the Iraq War
began. [Washington Post]
"Trying to eliminate Saddam,
extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have
violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream,
engaging in 'mission creep,' and would have incurred incalculable
human and political costs." - Former U.S. President
George H. W. Bush on why he didn't occupy Iraq
in 1991, in his 1998 book, "A World Transformed.''
[Bush, "A World
Transformed"]
"It is interesting to me that many
of those who want to rush this country into war and think it would
be so quick and easy don't know anything about war . . . They come
at it from an intellectual perspective versus having sat in jungles
or foxholes and watched their friends get their heads blown off." -
Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. [MSNBC]
"If we go after Saddam
Hussein, we lose
our rightful place as the good guy." - Vice
President
Cheney, September 16, 2001. [Woodward, p.25]
"Woodward meets Bush at a White House
Christmas party in 2002. Though it's months before the prez would
declare war on Iraq, Bush suggests that a sequel to Woodward's
previous best seller, Bush at War, should be in the
works.'Maybe it will be called More Bush at War,' Bush
says. Laura Bush responds, 'Let's hope not.'"
[Slate's "Condensed Bob Woodward"; Woodward, p.25]
"We see an unprecedented secrecy in
this White House that ... we find very troubling."
- Larry Klayman, executive director of
conservative legal watchdog Judicial Watch. "This is a case where left and right agree ... True
conservatives don't act this way." [USA Today]
"This is not a monarchy." -
House Government Reform Chairman Dan Burton, a
Republican from Indiana, after President Bush invoked executive
privilege to deny Congress access to prosecutorial documents, which
have routinely been turned over to Congress by past
administrations. [ABC News]
