Only attack those who can't hit back
"There are countries which are developing weapons of mass destruction and we will deal with them appropriately. One country is Iraq... if they won't [disarm], we'll lead a coalition to disarm them. Another country is North Korea... I believe the situation with North Korea will be resolved peacefully." — George "the Crusader" Bush, January 2.
Or even a non-smoking one
"In the course of these inspections we have not found any smoking gun." — Chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq Hans Blix, January 9.
Where there's no smoke there's fire
"The problem with guns that are hidden is that you can't see their smoke." — White House mouthpiece Ari Fleischer, January 9, commenting on Blix's statement.
It's a fact 'cos we say it is
"We know for a fact that there are weapons there." — Fleischer again.
His master's voice
"You have got to ask yourself — what is the alternative? Do you just walk away and pretend the problem is not there, leave a rogue state like Iraq with weapons of mass destruction, run the risk that at some time in the future those weapons might find their way into the hands of terrorists?" — Prime Menzies John Howard, January 10, announcing the "forward deployment" of 1500 Australian military personnel in preparation for the US-led war on Iraq.
Limited vocabulary
"You can't have a stronger anti-war message than saying, 'We don't support any unilateral action by the United States'." — federal ALP leader Simon Crean, January 10, responding to Labor back-bencher Laurie Brereton's claim that the ALP has failed to deliver a strong anti-war message.
Department of Foxes and Hen Houses
"President Bush is to be applauded on his choices. He's cleaning up corporate America in the best way he knows how — by hiring all the crooks." — Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at the Corporate Library, quoted in the Open Secrets web page newsletter, December 4-10.
From Green Left Weekly, January 15, 2003.
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