"I was convinced before the war that the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein required a vigorous and sustained international response to disarm him. Iraq possessed and had used chemical weapons; it had an active biological weapons program and quite possibly a nuclear research program — all of which were in violation of United Nations resolutions. Having encountered Mr. Hussein and his thugs in the run-up to the Persian Gulf war of 1991, I was only too aware of the dangers he posed. But were these dangers the same ones the administration told us about? We have to find out. America's foreign policy depends on the sanctity of its information. For this reason, questioning the selective use of intelligence to justify the war in Iraq is neither idle sniping nor "revisionist history," as Mr. Bush has suggested. The act of war is the last option of a democracy, taken when there is a grave threat to our national security. More than 200 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq already. We have a duty to ensure that their sacrifice came for the right reasons."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Joseph C. Wilson, Op-ed piece in The New York Times, (6 July 2003)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gulf_War
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Gulf War
38 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Gulf War →
Related Quotes
"Beginning with Desert Storm in Kuwait in 1991, American air superiority to detect and destroy enemy vehicles and troo…"
"A Texas firefighting team today extinguished the first of 500 oil-well fires set by Iraqi troops and declared a "smal…"
"A very different demonstration of military power was provided in February 1991 when Iraq was driven from Kuwait in a …"
"Tonight in Iraq, Saddam walks amidst ruin. His war machine is crushed. His ability to threaten mass destruction is it…"
"Whose life would be on my hands as the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the international law,…"
"Because if we had gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us. It wou…"
"British and US forces fired about 320 tonnes of depleted uranium munitions in the 1991 Gulf war and may have used up …"
"Europe is an economic giant, a political dwarf, and a military worm."
"We are now an empire, and when we act, we create our own reality. A reality that you observers study, and on which we…"
"Dr. Kang found that male Gulf War veterans reported having infants with likely birth defects at twice the rate of non…"