The American people are pretty impressive in their ability to keep after something if they think it is doable.

Saddam Hussein had nerve gas and used it against his own people, he had used chemical weapons against the Iranians and he almost had a nuclear bomb in 1981 and in 1991. And he had been caught with anthrax in 1995 by the UN inspections after denying that he had it.

I mean, we're going to probably debate the Iraq war for at least as long as I'm alive.

One of the things that ultimately led me to leave mathematics and go into political science was thinking I could prevent nuclear war.

I've met quite a few dictators up close and personal in my life.

The absence of Saddam is a huge weight off the Arab world.

That sense of what happened in Europe in World War II has shaped a lot of my views.