And hold it should. In the November 15th agreement, the Governing Council and coalition promised the Iraqi people sovereignty on a date certain and we will give it to them. |
for as long as necessary. |
He is virulently anti-Western and is particularly anti-American, ... and he has the resources to fund considerable anti-American or anti-Western activity. So he is a concern, because he's got a clear motive and he's got the means to carry out -- or to pay people to carry out -- attacks. |
I hope they're going to learn, and as a result of our response, that it isn't going to work. They're not going to change our life, they're not going to have us throw out our Constitution, and they're not going to chase us out of the Middle East. |
I leave Iraq gladdened by what has been accomplished and confident your future is full of hope. |
I think the Iraqi people have shown extraordinary patience and courage in the last few months. They have really put a political system on the way to success, to a real democracy here. |
I think there really is no shortcut to sovereignty. |
I think we Americans, of all people, understand the importance of a good, legal, constitutional framework as the basis of political life. |
I think what we've learned is that the terrorist threat is serious, but it shifts. You cannot make a single person the sole focus of your counterterrorism. |
If the provisional government asks us to leave, we will leave, |
If you look back today over the last 25 years, it is a fact that we have had a progressive degeneration of our intelligence community in general; in particular in the field of human intelligence. |
Iraq has become, for better or for worse, the front on the war on terrorism, and so we've got to do this, and I can understand why congressmen and senators would take their responsibility seriously, but I think in the end we'll get the money. |
Iraq is a better place, absolutely worth it. |
It is certainly not unrealistic to think we could have elections by mid-year 2004 and when a sovereign government is installed -- my job here will be done. |
It's [a division] that we keep for bureaucratic reasons, but it's not one that terrorists keep, ... And it's clear that you need to have a more seamless interaction of the intelligence that is collected, however it is collected under whatever guidelines there are. |