The United States continued to elaborate on the conditions it requires to deter an invasion of Iraq today, asking Saddam Hussein to step down from his dictatorship and run around the country flapping his arms like a chicken. Ari Fleischer defended the demands, saying, "Look, does the guy want to cooperate with us, or what?" Fleischer denied that the U.S. had also at one point considered making Hussein deliver a "really nice shrubbery" to the White House.
Fleischer pooh-poohed any suggestion that the ever-shifting rationales offered by the White House as purported justifications for the use of military force demonstrated that the decision to go to war with was ill-conceived or based on some mysterious "voodoo logic."
"There has never been any shift in our rationale," said Fleischer. "The chicken dance has always been the priority."