Joe Pitts: “A year ago our troops went into Iraq, removed Saddam Hussein from power, and the world is a safer place with him gone.…”

“A year ago our troops went into Iraq, removed Saddam Hussein from power, and the world is a safer place with him gone. Hussein was a homicidal tyrant who disregarded international law, basic human rights, and invaded his neighbors at will. He supported Palestinian terrorists and suicide bombers. He used chemical weapons of mass destruction against Iran and his own people. He killed thousands and thousands. Hussein reigned over the people of Iraq in terror and he terrorized the region. Human rights organizations report that women told them that rape was routinely used by Iraqi officials as a means of torture and intimidation. Electric shock, pulling out fingernails, dripping acid on victims' skin, gouging out eyes, were torture methods used by Saddam's regime. Iraq has come a long way since then. And if we stay the course, we can build a future for Iraq free of this kind of terror and deal a deathblow to the terrorists who rely on murder and coercion and death to advance the terrible agenda by building a free democratic Iraq.”