How you see the invasion of Iraq depends on your perspective. Here we sum up the last few days' developments in a selection of quotes - from leaders, soldiers on the ground, observers and victims of the war.
General Richard Myers, Chairman of US Joint
Chiefs of Staff, 1 April:
I extend my regrets to the families of Iraqis killed
yesterday [at US checkpoint]. The climate established by the Iraqi regime contributed to this incident.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, 1 April:
The only thing the coalition will
discuss with this regime is their unconditional
surrender.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (message read out on state TV by Iraqi information minister), 1 April:
Hit them! Fight them! They are evil aggressors damned by God. You are victorious and they are defeated.
Fight them as your brothers and sons fought them... Fight them everywhere as you are fighting them today, and do not give them a chance to catch their breath until they announce and
carry out their withdrawal from the homes of Muslims.
Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, 1 April:
Syria has chosen to align itself with the brotherly Iraqi
people who are facing an illegal and unjustified invasion and
against whom are being committed all sorts of crimes against
humanity.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, 1 April:
Saddam is neither friend, nor brother to us, and he will never pay off debts to us. It's the question of precedent: today the United States doesn't like
Iraq, tomorrow Syria, then Iran, North Korea and then what: everyone else?
BBC correspondent David Willis, in a despatch from central Iraq, 1 April:
One of the marines told me he now treated every civilian with suspicion. When I put it to another marine that this was just a simple farming family, he said "yes, but who knows where the threat is coming from next?"
Washington Post reporter William Branigin quotes Captain Ronny Johnson after soldiers shoot Iraqi women and children at a checkpoint, 1 April:
Cease fire! You just [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough!
David Shira Mukaria, Kenyan lorry driver rescued after being held hostage by Iraqi militiamen for 11 days, 31 March:
We decided because we are Christians we would ask God to save us or take our
souls to heaven. We prayed to God every day.
"We could not see them but we heard them talking. Some of them were speaking
in English. Some of them said, 'kill them', some of them said, 'no'. We just
prayed and prayed.
BBC correspondent in Baghdad Paul Wood, 31 March:
There is an old Arab saying I'm hearing more and more from Iraqis: "I will side with my brother against my cousin, but with my cousin against the foreigners".
US President George W Bush, 31 March:
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.
US Joint Chiefs of Staff head Richard Myers, 31 March:
We'll be patient. We'll just continue to draw the noose tighter and tighter.
Iraq's al-Thawra newspaper, 31 March:
Iraqis have taught Bush a lesson that turned his concept upside down.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, 31 March:
When it is over, if it is over, this war will have horrible consequences. Instead of having one [Osama] Bin Laden, we will have 100 Bin Ladens.
Retired US General Barry McCaffrey, criticising Donald Rumsfeld's war preparations, 30 March:
At the end of the day the question
arises: why would you do this operation with inadequate power?
...Is it because you have such a strong ideological view and you're so confident in your views that you disregard the vehement military advice from, particularly, army generals who you don't think are very bright?
Commander of US forces Tommy Franks, 30 March:
We're in fact on plan. And where we stand today is not, in my view, only acceptable but truly remarkable.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, 30 March:
You know - the question of terrorists, when you fight an invader by whatever means available to you, you are not a terrorist, you are a hero.
Lance Corporal Steven Gerrard, speaking aboard the hospital ship RFA Argus after his comrades were killed by "friendly fire", 30 March:
He [the pilot] had absolutely no regard for human life. I believe he was a cowboy. There were four or five that I noticed earlier and this one had broken off and was on his own when he attacked us. He'd just gone out on a jolly.
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~31~RS~)
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