Editorial quotes 01/31/04

"Infantrymen say to me they couldn't handle seeing a female getting hurt because it would remind them of their sister, aunt or wife. I understand their point, but at the same time we are all soldiers and we can all die for our country. So we can't we fight for our country?" -- Spc. Karen Guckert, 24, of Yakima, Wash., who is serving in Iraq, commenting on women's increasingly prominent role in the military.

"I believe that the effort that has been directed to this point has been sufficiently intense that it is highly unlikely that there were large stockpiles of deployed militarized chemical and biological weapons" in Iraq. -- David Kay, who led the CIA's search for banned weapons in Iraq, speaking before the Senate.

"We'll see if John Kerry can take the number of body blows that Howard Dean did and still be standing." -- Howard Dean spokeswoman Tricia Enright regarding Kerry's front-runner status.