The public think the politicians don't know or care about their lives; and the politicians feel misunderstood.
Tony BlairRead
We expected, I expected to find actual usable, chemical or biological weapons after we entered Iraq. But I have to accept, as the months have passed, it seems increasingly clear that at the time of invasion, Saddam did not have stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons ready to deploy.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the realization and admission that expectations about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were incorrect.
In this quote, Tony Blair acknowledges the discrepancy between the expectation of finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the reality that such weapons were not actually present at the time of the invasion. It highlights the complexities and uncertainties involved in military interventions and the challenges of intelligence assessments.
In practice
In a debate about the justification of the Iraq War, this quote can illustrate the failure of intelligence.
The public think the politicians don't know or care about their lives; and the politicians feel misunderstood.
There is no meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror. Just a choice: Defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must.
Ask me my three main priorities for government, and I tell you: education, education and education.
However much I dislike the idea of abortion, you should not criminalize a woman who, in very difficult circumstances, makes that choice.
I want my son to grow up in a place where the people are more powerful than the government and not the other way around.
The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge.
It doesn't matter where we begin the personal/political circle, but it matters desperately that we complete it.
For somebody who loves foreign policy, being Secretary is the best job in the world - but it doesn't happen twice.
A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.
Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.
Congress is, after all, not a body of laymen unfamiliar with the commonplaces of our law. This legislation was the formulation of the two Judiciary Committees, all of whom are lawyers, and the Congress is predominately a lawyers' body.
The key to U.N. reform is giving Americans a clearer picture of what the U.N. is and what it isn't, what it can be and what it can't be.
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