OK, so what does this have to do with the war in Iraq?

Those who attacked America have proven their eagerness to kill innocent men, women, and children by the thousands. They are looking to obtain weapons of mass destruction by any means they can find. They would not hesitate to use such weapons at the first opportunity. And their prime target is our country. Four years ago, on a Tuesday morning in September, a threat that had been gathering for years, in secret and far away, arrived in America and brought grief to the entire nation. And after 9/11, the United States made a decision: Having been attacked by stealth inside our own country, we will not sit back and wait to be hit again. We will do everything we can to prevent attacks by taking the fight to the enemy.

• Dick Cheney