Word: saddamism
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TIME Do you think it was a failure of imagination that everybody thought Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction...
...natural, then, when it came to Iraq, for Bush to conclude that the risks of underreacting were greater than the risks of overreacting. Bush's world view was so designed around strength that he could hardly have pulled back on Iraq once he became convinced that Saddam posed a short-term threat and that spreading democracy in the Arab world was a long-term necessity. Unlike in domestic affairs, where Bush could cut a deal at the end, there was no way to launch half an invasion. Devoted to action and surrounded by advisers who admired tough calls, Bush created...
...have made it very clear that we thought we would find stockpiles. I remind the people that he had the capability of making those weapons. And therefore that was not a failure of imagination to think that. As a matter of fact, I can't imagine not having taken Saddam Hussein seriously as a threat, given his history and his capabilities and his intent...
...that's really the interesting debate. I mean, you've hit upon the crux of whether or not the foreign policy of this Administration will work. Now, look, we went into Iraq because I felt, as a lot of other people did, Saddam was a threat and therefore had to be dealt with for short-term security. But the long-term strategy is for Iraq to be a democracy. It takes a while to get there, but I will tell you, the world has got to be somewhat heartened by the fact that now 10 million Afghan citizens have shown...
BUSH When you asked that question, I was convinced you were trying to force me to say it was a mistake to go into Iraq, which I wasn't going to do. As sure as I'm sitting here, the right decision was to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The tactics going into Iraq were based upon a certain set of assumptions, like refugee flows, hunger, oil destruction. Had we had to do it over again, we would look at the consequences of catastrophic success--being so successful so fast that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done...