"Who said this?"

 Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces to strike military
and security targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces. Their
mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors.

Their purpose is to protect the national interest of the United States,
and indeed the interests of people throughout the Middle East and
around the world.

Saddam Hussein must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the
world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons.

I want to explain why I have decided, with the unanimous recommendation
of my national security team, to use force in Iraq; why we have acted
now; and what we aim to accomplish.

Six weeks ago, Saddam Hussein announced that he would no longer
cooperate with the United Nations weapons inspectors called UNSCOM.
They are highly professional experts from dozens of countries. Their
job is to oversee the elimination of Iraq's capability to retain,
create and use weapons of mass destruction, and to verify that Iraq
does not attempt to rebuild that capability.

The inspectors undertook this mission first 7.5 years ago at the end of
the Gulf War when Iraq agreed to declare and destroy its arsenal as a
condition of the ceasefire.

The international community had good reason to set this requirement.
Other countries possess weapons of mass destruction and ballistic
missiles. With Saddam, there is one big difference: He has used them.
Not once, but repeatedly. Unleashing chemical weapons against Iranian
troops during a decade-long war. Not only against soldiers, but against
civilians, firing Scud missiles at the citizens of Israel, Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain and Iran. And not only against a foreign enemy, but
even against his own people, gassing Kurdish civilians in Northern
Iraq.

The international community had little doubt then, and I have no doubt
today, that left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will use these terrible
weapons again.

President William Clinton, December 16, 1998

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/12/16/transcripts/clinton.html