For Immediate Release
April 4, 2003
Messages to the Iraqi People in the President's Words
"and the People of Iraq Have My Pledge Our Fighting Forces Will Press
Messages to the Iraqi People in the President's Words
"and the People of Iraq Have My Pledge
Our Fighting Forces Will Press on until your entire country is free. The Iraqi people deserve to live
in peace under leaders they have chosen. They deserve a government that
respects the rights of every citizen and ethnic group. They deserve a
country that is united, that's independent, and that is released from
years of sanctions and sorrow. Our coalition has one goal for the
future of Iraq -- to return that great country to it's own people."
04-03-03
"The people of Iraq have lived in this nightmare world for more
than two decades. It is understandable that fear and distrust run deep.
Yet, here in the city where America itself gained freedom, I give this
pledge to the citizens of Iraq: We're coming with a mighty force to end
the reign of your oppressors. We are coming to bring you food and
medicine and a better life. And we are coming, and we will not stop, we
will not relent until your country is free."
03-31-03
"Well, they've been sent a message in this war, too, in that if you
launch a weapon of mass destruction, you'll be tried as a war
criminal. And I urge those Iraqi generals who have any doubt of our
word to be careful, because we'll keep our word. We're going to keep
our word to the Iraqi people and we'll keep our word to those war
criminals in Iraq."
03-27-03
"Many Iraqis can hear me tonight in a translated radio broadcast,
and I have a message for them. If we must begin a military campaign, it
will be directed against the lawless men who rule your country and not
against you. As our coalition takes away their power, we will deliver
the food and medicine you need. We will tear down the apparatus of
terror and we will help you to build a new Iraq that is prosperous and
free. In a free Iraq, there will be no more wars of aggression against
your neighbors, no more poison factories, no more executions of
dissidents, no more torture chambers and rape rooms. The tyrant will
soon be gone. The day of your liberation is near."
03-17-03
Key Quotes
"I urge the Iraqi people being threatened in the cities to try
to remember the faces and the names of the death squad enforcers. Their
time will come, and we will need your help and your testimony... They
dress in civilian clothes and operate from private homes, confiscated
from innocent people, and try to blend in with the civilian
population. They conduct sadistic executions on sidewalks and public
squares, cutting the tongues out of those accused of disloyalty and
beheading people with swords. They put on American and British uniforms
to try to fool regular Iraqi soldiers into surrendering to them, and
then execute them as an example for others who might contemplate
defection or capitulation."
Secretary Rumsfeld, 03-28-03
"[W]e are liberating the Iraqi people from a ruthless tyranny
that has showed utter contempt for human life. We are resolved to
help the Iraqi people achieve a united and stable country and move
toward democracy and prosperity under a representative government that
respects the rights of all of its citizens."
Secretary Powell, 03-31-03
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