Quotes on the 2003 War in Iraq
I can’t guarantee that these quotations are correct or true,
but I have tried to verify as many of the quotes as possible.
Please contact me if you find any errors in the quotes,
have some additional information about the quotes
or if you know any War in Iraq quotations that’s not listed here.
Quotes related to the 2003 invasion and war in Iraq
Quotes and quotations by the ex-President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein
“Long live jihad and long live Palestine.”
“You will triumph, O Iraqis, and with you the sons of your Arab nation”
“We pledge to you in our name… that we will resist the invaders.”
“We will pursue them until they lose their nerves… Now that they have indulged in their evil and crimes, they will suffer a defeat.”
“Iraq will triumph and with Iraq will our Arab nation and mankind also triumph.”
– Saddam Hussein,
Appeared on Iraqi TV three hours after the Air-Strike began.
“Today you are standing in a position that would please the friend and would anger the enemy and all the infidels.
You will be victorious against the enemies and you are causing them to suffer.”
“Victory will be ours soon, Iraqis will strike the necks as God has commanded you.”
“Strike them and strike evil so that evil will be defeated.”
“After they underestimated you, you Iraqis, now they’ve come on land; this attempt is our chance to incur losses on them,”
“They are in a dilemma, they are in trouble now. Hate them and strike them.”
– Saddam Hussein, in a speech on Iraqi television. (24.march)
Quotes by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins
“We go to liberate not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country,”
“Iraq is steeped in history. It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham. Tread lightly there.”
“If you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory”
“There may be people among us who will not see the end of this… We will put them in their sleeping bags and send them back, there will be no time for sorrow”
“The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing about his rightful destruction.”
“It is a big step to take another human life. It is not to be done lightly.”
– Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins to the battlegroup of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish at Fort Blair Mayne desert camp, 20 miles from the Iraqi border. (20. march)
Miscellaneous quotes related ot the Iraqi War
“Albania has lined up alongside the U.S. in the global challenge of our times, the fight against terrorism and the dictatorial regimes nourishing it – as a partner willing to carry out its duties among the large family of civilized nations.”
– Albanian Minister of Defense, Pandeli Majko
“You’re heroes. Children in our schools will learn about your heroism.
You have come through missions that were complex and demanding,
missions for which you have risked your own health and lives.”
– Czech Republic Minister of Defence Jaroslav Tvrdik
“It is our moral duty to intervene today, straight away,
to help the Iraqi people in their difficulty.
Iraq has to be given back to the Iraqi people.”
– Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini
“I can take pride in our soldiers, who equal their western allies in courage,
preparedness and patriotism.”
– President Rolandas Paksas of the Republic of Lithuania
“In the wake of winning the war, Poland wants to help win peace with Iraq.
I believe that the international community cannot leave Iraq without support.”
– Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewsk
“Today we confront the future with optimism from a founded hope for the Iraqi people
– in freedom,”
– Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar
“We will respect carefully the international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions,”
“I hope that the American Army will respect [this] also.”
Mohamed Aldouri, Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations
After Al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language satellite network, broadcast pictures
of American soldiers recorded by Iraqi television.
“All things are in God’s hands and he doesn’t want you for a sunbeam – he wants you for a soldier. He wants you to fight for truth and offer prayer for justice.”
– Father Nick Gosnell, chaplain to 16th Air Assault Brigade (16. march)
“The United States of America is a threat to world peace. Because what [America] is saying is that if you are afraid of a veto in the Security Council, you can go outside and take action and violate the sovereignty of other countries. That is the message they are sending to the world. That must be condemned in the strongest terms.”
– Nelson Mandela
“If we invade Iraq and the regime is very close to falling, I’m very, very concerned that the Iraqis will, in fact, use weapons of mass destruction.”
– General Norman Schwarzkopf
“We’re in fact on plan. And where we stand today is not, in my view, only acceptable but truly remarkable.”
– Commander of US forces Tommy Franks (30 March, BBC News)
“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.”
– Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz (30 March, BBC News)
“When it is over, if it is over, this war will have horrible consequences. Instead of having one Bin Laden, we will have 100 Bin Ladens.”
– Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (31 March, BBC News)
“Iraqis have taught Bush a lesson that turned his concept upside down.”
– Iraq’s al-Thawra newspaper (31 March, BBC News)
“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?”
– Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov (1 April, BBC News)
“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.”
– Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesperson (1 April, BBC News)
“No one’s killing more Iraqis right now than the Iraqi regime.”
– Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, at a Central Command news conference in Qatar, 1 April
“Retreat might give us a moment of respite but years of repentance at our weakness would, I believe, follow.”
– Tony Blair’s address to the nation (20 march)
“As so often before on the courage and determination of British men and women serving our country the fate of many nations rest.”
– Tony Blair’s address to the nation (20 March)
“The money from Iraqi oil will be yours – it will no longer be used by Saddam Hussein for his own benefit”
– Tony Blair’s letter to the Iraqis (4 April)
“We promise that the events of 1991 will not happen again – we have pledged to remove Saddam and we will deliver”
– Tony Blair’s letter to the Iraqis (4 April)
Funny quotes related to the war in Iraq
“One weekend a month my ass!”
U.S. Army Reservist in Iraq taped a piece of cardboard to
the front window of his HMMWV
Correction received on e-mail:
The cardboard was actually affixed to the windshield of an LMTV, a cargo truck larger than a HMMWV.
The truck was located on Balad SE Air Force Base about 50 miles north of Baghdad.
It’s now called Anaconda and is a logistics base.
“When the President says go – Look out, it’s hammer time.”
– Vice Admiral Timothy Keating (who has obviously never heard of MC Hammer:)
“I wish these people no ill will, really.
I just wish they would surrender and we could get this all over with.”
– Col. Mark Hildenbrand, commander of the 937th Engineer Group
“There’s no beer, no prostitutes and people are shooting at us. It’s more like Portsmouth”
– an unnamed soldier on Sky News refutes claims that Iraqi city Umm Qasr is ‘like Southampton’.
“Well, I can’t say just where we are, but we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
– Embedded reporter commenting on troop movements (CNN or Fox news)
Yes, General, Laura Cohn with Business Week Magazine. It sounds like you’ve made some good progress on the oil fields in the south but that you might have a problem once you get to Baghdad. Could you tell us what your plan is to secure the oil fields?
GEN. RENUART: I don’t think there’s any oil fields in Baghdad.
CENTCOM news briefing, tuesday march 25
Q: Mr. Secretary, what evidence do you have that it’s actually working, that
there are actually Iraqis who are heeding this call to —
Rumsfeld: We have evidence.
Q: And what sort of evidence is that?
Rumsfeld: Good evidence.
DoD News Briefing – Secretary Rumsfeld And Gen. Myers, March 20,
When Rumsfeld yesterday was asked on NBC why the
Iraqi defense ministry was still intact he replied: “Obviously we didn’t hit
it.”
– Washington Post
“As to have they had an effect on us, I’m also pleased to say they had no effect on us. In fact, we destroyed one of the GPS jammers with a GPS weapon.”
– Major General Victor E. “Gene” Renuart’s response to a question about the use of GPS jamming equipment by the Iraqis.
CENTCOM Operation Iraqi Freedom Briefing ~ 25 March 2003
“We now join Caroline Wyatt at British military
headquarters – who, like all correspondents, is not
allowed to disclose her precise location or
operational details. Caroline, where are you, and what
plans have they got for today?
– Natasha Kaplinsky on BBC Breakfast
‘Flipper’s f*cked, mate. The dolphins have had all this amazing publicity but as soon as they put one in the water it shot through. There’s a war going on and Flipper goes AWOL. If you put one to work in Sydney Harbour it would mark a million things because it can’t tell the difference between a washing machine and a mine. The bottom line, mate, is it’s a fish.
It’s also a very smart fish so how do you know it hasn’t just gone off for a feed instead of working and then thought, “Hang on, I’d better mark a few things or they won’t give me any fish when I get back”.’
– An Australian Navy diver on the use of dolphins in mine clearing operations in the port city of Umm Qasr
‘He was sitting there in his little building thinking, great, have a good evening, have a good morning, and then whack, we’re in, whack, he’s out, and 20 of them are gone, just like that.’
– An enthusiastic British military spokesman, Colonel Chris Vernon,
on the capture of a Ba’ath Party official by British troops in Basra.
‘Shut up, I’m broadcasting! Oh yes, I’m fine. Am I bleeding?’
– The BBC’s John Simpson’s dedication to his journalistic duty being interrupted by an American medic immediately after a friendly fire incident in northern Iraq.
