I didn't mean to suggest yesterday that those who favored a war with Iraq wanted it. Ideally, I understand everyone would have liked Saddam to leave peacefully. I think those who have supported have understood that wasn't going to happen. We've known for a better part of a year that to achieve our goal of stabalizing the region and removing a threat to the United States and peace, that war was perhaps not the preferred way to go but it was the only realistic option.

In essence, those who've been tough on Iraq have wanted war only because war is the only way that the goal can be achieved. I'm not suggesting that they're bloodthirsty, only that they see war as the only way. And if removing Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi threat is the goal, war is the only answer.