“I don’t want to be invasive with these people here, I don’t want to trample on their holy ground.”

“Searching house to house, street to street, is slow, tedious and dangerous work. If it comes to this in Baghdad, things could take a very long time.”

“Many dangers lie ahead, but day by day, we are moving closer to Baghdad.”

— President George W. Bush

“For the people of Baghdad, it would be as if the Iraqi regime simply vanished.”

“They are calling this the cleanest war in all of military history.”

“To some extent I feel fortunate that I’m here because this is something I never would have seen before and now that I see it I kinda understand some of the history behind it.”

— An American soldier in front of the Imam Ali Mosque

“And today, in an extraordinary admission, the Chinese government apologized to the world.”