Equal Time, Mr. President...

I Give the President his Bully Pulpit:

The President: And so, yes, I care, I really do. I wish -- and so, therefore, I'm going to spend a lot of time trying to explain as best I can why it's important for us to succeed in Iraq.

Q:Quick follow-up. A lot of the consequences you mentioned for pulling out seem like maybe they never would have been there if we hadn't gone in. How do you square all of that?

The President: I square it because, -ah- imagine a world in which you had Saddam Hussein who had the capacity to make a weapon of mass destruction, who was paying suiciders to kill innocent life, who would -- who had relations with Zarqawi. Imagine what the world would be like with him in power. The idea is to try to help change the Middle East.

Now, look, part of the reason we went into Iraq was -- the main reason we went into Iraq at the time was -ah- we thought he had weapons of mass destruction. It turns out he didn't, but he had the capacity to -ah- make weapons of mass destruction. But I also talked about the -ah- human suffering in Iraq, and I also talked the need to advance a freedom agenda. And so my question -- my answer to your question is, -ah- is that, -ah- imagine a world in which Saddam Hussein was there, stirring up even more trouble in a part of the world that had so much resentment and so much hatred that people came and killed 3,000 of our citizens.

You know, I've heard this theory about everything was just fine until we arrived, and -ah- kind of "we're going to stir up the hornet's nest" theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started -ah- the freedom agenda in the Middle East.

Q What did Iraq have to do with that?

The President: What did Iraq have to do with what?

Q The attack on the World Trade Center?

The President: Nothing, except for -ah- it's part of -- and nobody has ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a -- the lesson of September the 11th is, -ah- take threats before they fully materialize, Ken. Nobody has ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were -ah- ordered by Iraq. I have suggested, however, that resentment and -ah- the lack of hope create the breeding grounds for terrorists who are willing to use suiciders to kill to achieve an objective. I have made that case.

And one way to defeat that -- defeat resentment is with hope. And the best way to do hope is through a form of government. Now, I said going into Iraq that -ah- we've got to take these threats seriously before they fully materialize. I saw a threat. I -ah- fully believe it was the right decision to remove Saddam Hussein, and I -ah- fully believe the world is better off without him. Now, the question is how do we succeed in Iraq? And you don't succeed by leaving -ah- before the mission is complete, like some in this political process are suggesting.