Berlusconi Sought to Dissuade Bush on Iraq

Turns out Italy wasn't as gungho about this war as ol' Bushie implied.

Berlusconi Sought to Dissuade Bush on Iraq

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, one of President Bush's strongest supporters over Iraq, says he tried repeatedly to dissuade the American leader from going to war and was never convinced military force was the best way to bring democracy...

..."I was never convinced that war was the best system to bring democracy to the country and to get rid of a bloody dictatorship," Berlusconi said of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. "I tried several times to convince the American president to not go to war."

"I believed that military action should have been avoided," he was quoted as saying...

"Tell Tony Blair we're going it alone. Tell Silvio Berlusconi we're going it alone. Tell Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland we're going it alone."
-President George W. Bush (October 8, 2004)