Verbatim

“He made clear to me that he did not want to respond to al-Qaeda one attack at a time. He told me he was ‘tired of swatting flies.'”
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. National Security Adviser, explaining what she said was U.S. President George W. Bush’s strategy on al-Qaeda, during her testimony before the commission investigating the attacks of 9/11

“Dr. Rice, we only swatted a fly once, on the 20th of August 1998. We didn’t swat any flies afterwards. How the hell could he be tired?”
BOB KERREY, Democratic member of the 9/11 commission, referring to the 1998 retaliatory missile strike that President Bill Clinton ordered against al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan

“In a day, we went from a humanitarian mission to combat. It’s just amazing that the kids I talked with two, three days ago are the same ones that are throwing the rocks at us as hard as they can.”
1st Lieut. DAVE SWANSON, a U.S. soldier, on the recent surge of Shi’ite resistance to U.S. forces in Iraq

“We are not going to be intimidated by thugs and assassins. We will not cut and run from the people who want freedom.”
U.S. President GEORGE W. BUSH, on his determination to maintain control and transfer governing power to Iraqis in June

“No freedom is safe, because every clause in the Basic Law is [now] subject to interpretation by the Standing Committee without notice.”
MARTIN LEE, Hong Kong Democratic Party legislator, on Beijing’s new interpretation of the Basic Law, the territory’s mini-constitution—an adjustment that Lee says undermines the “one country, two systems” principle meant to afford Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy from the mainland

“They asked us to make them feel at home while we trained them to take our jobs.”
STEPHEN GENTRY, an Auburn, Washington, employee of Boeing, who was laid off—and says he was then asked to train the worker in India who would replace him