Iraq and the Ghost of Johnnie Cochran

"I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if He wants, He will send it to heaven with the martyrs"

"Saddam never abandoned his intentions to resume a CW [Chemical Warfare] effort when sanctions were lifted and conditions were judged favorable"

"ISG judges that Iraq maintained the expertise and equipment necessary for R&D of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and toxins that could be used as BW [Biological Warfare] agents up until Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) in March 2003"

"Saddam aspired  to develop a nuclear capability-in an incremental fashion, irrespective of international pressure and the resulting economic risks-but he intended to focus on ballistic missile and tactical chemical warfare (CW) capabilities."

"He wanted nuclear weapons to guarantee his legacy and to compete with powerful and antagonistic neighbors; to him, nuclear weapons were necessary for Iraq to survive."

"The Iraqis never intended to meet the spirit of the UN resolutions. Outward acts of compliance belied a covert desire to resume WMD activities."

"The Regime  sought a favorable relationship with France because France was influential as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and was in a good position to help Iraq with lifting sanctions."

"as part of his efforts to escape sanctions, Saddam launched a vigorous campaign to shape international opinion. The Regime drew attention to everything from poor sanitation to the absence of electric power; the main effort, however, focused on the impact of sanctions upon children, especially those under five years of age."

"The resolution does not call for them to go snooping all over Iraq to see what they can find; the resolution puts the burden not on the inspectors but on Saddam Hussein to come forward, complete declaration, full cooperation, and telling us everything that has been going on in Baghdad and throughout Iraq, lo these many years, with respect to weapons of mass destruction."

"a reminder to all Muslim in Iraq of the immense gravity of killing others Muslims, which is considered by Islam as a crime against humanity."

"every Iraqi will be facing his responsibilities towards his Creator, his faith, his homeland, and his people, if he opts to get himself involved in the sectarian killing, an act which is totally abhorred by the religion"

• "crimes that Islam strongly forbids but which are used as justification for acts unknown in the religion,"
• "the tide of sedition in Iraq,"
• "the inviolability of the blood of an Iraqi whoever he may be"
• "sedition is worse than killing,"
• "sin and acts of disobedience of God hiding behind the name of religion,"

"this august gathering of eminent Muslim scholars and jurisprudential authorities are determined to put an end to the bloodshed, the killing of innocent human beings, the spreading of evil and wickedness on the earth, the terrorization of the innocent, and filling Iraq with scores of thousands of orphans, widows, and women dispossessed of their children or husbands."

"what exist in Iraq was not sectarian strife between Iraqi Shiites and Muslim but political crisis"

"to stop all forms  of violence against each other so that scenes of car bombs, indiscriminate assassinations, forced expulsions and other tragic scenes will disappear forever."

"The violence being witnessed in Iraq is not sectarian as Shiites and Sunnis had up till now lived as brothers loving one another, but largely political championed by the politicians"

"the root of bloodshed in Iraq is not sectarian but rather political differences."

"What is taking place in Iraq is not a civil war; and those who claim so are indeed doing injustice to this country."

"These fundamental principles apply equally to the Sunnis and the Shiites without exception.."

"it is incumbent upon all Muslims to adopt caution and vigilance against all attempts to sow division among them, break their ranks, or incite sedition, strife, and hate to corrupt their divine spiritual bonds with each other."

"The Sunnite and Shiite scholars support all efforts aimed at achieving comprehensive national reconciliation in Iraq"

"We resent being called Shiites and Sunnis and Kurds the same way you resent somebody come to you and say, Are you Catholic or Protestant? Are you a Christian or a Jew? We are all Iraqis. We want to melt into the Iraqi identity. This is very important to us.

"These expressions were imported to Iraq... Iraqis are the last people to think about civil unrest. We would be the sole losers."

"My 6-year-old nephew called me from Mosul and he said, Congratulations, uncle. So you are the president....  So you going to kill 50% of the Iraqi society? And I said, My God, how heavy the weight on our shoulders is. It's not to rehabilitate, it's to re-create a nation."

"when I come to Washington I feel despair. When I'm in Iraq with my commanders, when I talk to our soldiers, when I talk to the Iraqi leadership, they are not despairing. They believe that they can move the country toward stability with our help. And I believe that."

"when I go to the field, the soldiers are uniformly confident about their ability to face this enemy; make Iraq, Afghanistan, whatever area they happen to be operating in, better; defeat the terrorists wherever they find them, and they all understand it's going to take time."

"It's very interesting that we testified on Capitol Hill for about nine hours and we take the nine-second sound bites out that seem to get the most headlines."

 "when I was over here in my first year, the issues of sectarianism were something that were possibly below the surface, but when you talked to Iraqis, they considered themselves Iraqis. And there wasn't a single situation that I remember in my first year where they pointed to the difference between Sunni and Shi'a when you went down into the neighborhoods.  When you went down into the neighborhoods in Baghdad, where I was the first time, you found mixed neighborhoods of Sunnis and Shi'as who had lived together for many, many years.  And quite frankly, neighbors didn't know what the sect of each other was."

"I think the Golden Mosque bombing was absolutely critical.  In my two years here, there's not been a single more definitive event that seemed to have changed the way Iraqis looked at themselves and looked at their country."

"What I see right now is a huge commitment by the Iraqis, politically and militarily, to the endeavor we're now engaged upon. In short, I still believe we can do this."

 "I see a commitment with this government that I have not seen before. And don't forget, they've only been in power for, what, some 240 days. It took you 11 years to write your Constitution, and we're still trying to write ours."

"I see the Sunni community looking towards to come back into the political process. I see this government, this prime minister dealing with the militias. We are judged by our actions in this world, and I do see them taking the right actions."