W's 2002 quote confirms the DSM! "F___ Saddam we're taking him out"

You want a smoking gun? You want high-level confirmation of the now infamous Downing Street Minutes? How about a quote from George W. in March of 2002! From A March 2003 Time Magazine article

(mad props to Left Coaster for their long memories and/or Google skills to pull this one back from the Memory Hole)

"

F___ Saddam. we're taking him out." Those were the words of President George W. Bush, who had poked his head into the office of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

By itself the quote would be nothing more than a prime example of Chimpy the Cowboy's macho but delusional world view, but the time and place he said it make it so much more:

It was March 2002, and Rice was meeting with three U.S. Senators, discussing how to deal with Iraq through the United Nations, or perhaps in a coalition with America's Middle East allies. Bush wasn't interested. He waved his hand dismissively, recalls a participant, and neatly summed up his Iraq policy in that short phrase.

Be very clear about what you are reading. this was 2002 The grown-ups from Capitol Hill had come to the White House to discuss a sensible way to deal with whatever threat Saddam really did pose. You know, how things are supposed to work. Resonable options were proposed: Going to the UN, building a careful multi-lateral coalition to oppose him, etc.

But Chimpy was having none of it. He was living in a Tom Clancy novel, where presidents squinted their steely eyes and ordered their enemies "taken out". In his simpleton's world view Saddam was a "bad guy" and taking him out would make everything all better.

In W's world there would be no sectarian crisis, or postwar reconstruction, much less a post war insurgency to contend with. Just a "clean" antiseptic war where nobody important died, and Bush got to preside over the victory parade. A war just like dear old dad had.

And how did the grown-ups react? With stunned disbelief apparently:

The Senators laughed uncomfortably; Rice flashed a knowing smile. The President left the room.

A year later, Bush's outburst has been translated into action, as cruise missiles and smart bombs slam into Baghdad.

(and two years after that it translated into IED's destroying Humvees, Suicide bombers killing Iraqi civillians, and too many brave young men and women dying maimed in the mud)

And there you have it. From W's own lips, uttered in 2002 we have all the proof we need of the essential truth of the Downing Street Minutes. There can be no real doubt anymore that Bush was determined to have his war, and he wasn't about to let facts, truth, or caution get in his way.

The next question will be, will any of the Senators in the room that day, have the guts or decency to come forward?