Senator Clinton made the following statement on the NIE on September 25:
Its findings as described in the press are deeply distressing because they confirm what a lot of us feared that the policies pursued by this administration have not worked and therefore we are breeding terrorists who will not only take aim at us but at our friends and allies including innocent Iraqis who try to get up and go on with their lives. I have been a strong critic of the administration's policies from the very beginning - the way they have conducted themselves, the decisions they have made the strategic blunder after blunder that they are responsible for. I would hope that they would listen to other people and obviously they haven't been willing to do that which is why this election in November is so important.
Does the senator now believe that it was a "strategic blunder" to take Saddam out in March 2003? Does she agree that Iraq was a " cause celebre" for al Qaeda prior to the invasion? Does she believe it would be a "strategic blunder" for President Bush to follow the advice of the Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean and the other Ned Lamont Democrats and withdraw from Iraq? Would such a policy "breed" more "terrorists who will not only take aim at us but at our friends and allies including innocent Iraqis"?