On the eve of Iraq’s elections, President Bush continued his campaign to bolster public support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

• President Bush: “When we made the decision to go into Iraq, many intelligence agencies around the world judged that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction. This judgement was shared by the intelligence agencies of governments who did not support my decision to remove Saddam. And it is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong. As President, I’m responsible for the decision to go into Iraq — and I’m also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities. And we’re doing just that.”

Although he acknowledged the errors in pre-war intelligence on Iraq’s weapons programs, Bush defended the decision to invade.

• President Bush: “Given Saddam’s history and the lessons of September the 11th, my decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision. Saddam was a threat — and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power.”