Scott McClellan

There have been some that have tried to suggest that we don't have a plan. I know some congressional members of Congress have -- Democratic members of Congress have suggested that, and they are flat-out wrong.

The world is better off and America is more secure because Saddam Hussein was removed from power.

It was the right decision to confront what was a grave and growing threat in the form of Saddam Hussein and his regime. It was based on solid and compelling evidence. And America is safer for it.

The national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq.

One of the worst disasters in our nation's history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush's presidency.

History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided, the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder.

The presidency of George W. Bush veered terribly off course, and the administration was guilty of a, in his words, excessive embrace of the permanent campaign approach to governance.

He and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war.

If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war…

I had allowed myself to be deceived into unknowingly passing along a falsehood.

War should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.

I said what I believed to be true at the time. It was also what the president believed to be true at the time based on assurances that we were both given. And knowing what I know today, I would have never said that back then.