“I greatly appreciate the gesture made by Prime Minister Blair in traveling to speak before Congress.  It sends a message of solidarity to the world in a time when both of our countries are coming under question over a very serious dispute. 

“There has been much discussion over whether or not our country and Britain waged an unfounded war based on weapons of mass destruction that we have yet to find.  We should remember that less than half of the suspected weapons sites in Iraq have been checked.  Saddam Hussein may have destroyed evidence of weapons of mass destruction, he may have sent them to other countries, and they may have even been destroyed by the thousands of bombs we dropped in that country.  We may never find the evidence.  What matters now is that a country is free of its evil dictator, and our men and women in uniform are bravely standing their ground to finish what we started: to free Iraq and keep America safe.”