John McCain
Town Hall
Rochester, MI 05/07/08

QUESTIONER: Thank you. You mentioned Iraq and oil, at least the oil part. Is that why we went there? Did we go there for their oil? JOHN MCCAIN: No ma'am. I don't, uh, it was not my position. My belief was, at the time, and it was shared by every intelligence agency in the world that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that he was going to use them. I also believe that he was an oppressive and repressive regime that had butchered many, many of his own people, had used weapons of mass destruction twice in conflicts, one against his own people and another time in a war against Iran, that he was hell-bent on developing those weapons of mass destruction, the oil-for-food program had turned into a scandal and the sanctions were breaking down. So for all of those reasons, particularly in my view. The threat that he would acquire and use weapons of mass destruction was the reason why I believe that. And my statements on the record at the time clearly indicated that. I have always said that that's the reason is because of the issue of weapons of mass destruction, primarily. [applause]

LABEL: JM MI 5-7 (EW#8) CHIPR -- Clip E

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