Tom Harkin: “Well, again, there is one statement after another. Here is a speech that the Vice President gave on August 26, 2002, to…”

“Well, again, there is one statement after another. Here is a speech that the Vice President gave on August 26, 2002, to the VFW national convention. "Simply stated," said the Vice President, "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them. I think that is important. He is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." Well, if he was amassing them, where are they? What information did Vice President Cheney rely upon last August 26 when he uttered those words? Words have import. Words have consequences, especially when those words are uttered by the President of the United States or the Vice President--even more so than words uttered by us on the Senate floor. I believe the consequences of those words led us into a war in Iraq that, quite possibly, either could not have happened because we could have had inspectors and we could have weakened Saddam more and more over the months and years; or it could have been a war in which we were there with the world community. But, no, the President wanted to rush into this. The words he used and the words that were used by the Vice President were used to frighten the American people, to stampede the Congress into passing a resolution. Mr. President, I think, as we look at our duties here--and, of course, we have to support our troops and we have to pass this bill-- the hard questions need to be answered. What did the President know?…”