Here’s the White House transcript:

MR. KERICK: Thank you. I just — first, I want to take this opportunity
to thank the President for giving me the honor, and allowing me to go to Iraq –
to go to Iraq and help the Iraqi people, give the Iraq people back their
country.
And we did so — and we did so quite quickly, and that continues on a daily
basis. Four months ago — four-and-a-half months ago, when I arrived in Iraq,
there were no police — very few, if any. There were no police stations. There
were no cars. There was no electricity. They didn’t have telephones,
communications, radios. They basically had nothing. They had no equipment.
They had no weapons, except for those they had ordered kept on the side. In the
last four months, we brought back more than 40,000 police, 450 cars in Baghdad,
stood up 35 police stations in Baghdad.
But I know I constantly hear as I come back, I listen to the press, and I
listen to some of the public, some of the criticism. And they talk about, it’s
taking too long. Well, try to stand up 35 police stations in New York City. It
would take you about 11 years, depending on who is in the city council. It
takes a while. You only have 24 hours in a day. But they have made tremendous
progress. The police are working; they’re working in conjunction with the
military. They are arresting the Fedayeen Saddam and the Baathists.
And I read some of the articles about this, about Dr. Kaye’s report today,
in my opinion, there was one weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, and it was
Saddam Hussein. I visited the mass graves. I watched the videos of the
Mukhabarat, the intelligence services, interrogate, torture, abuse and execute
people day after day. I watched them tie grenades to the necks of people, or
stuff grenades in the pockets of people as they interviewed them, and then
detonate those grenades and watch the people disappear. I watched a video of
Saddam sitting in an office and allowing two Doberman Pinschers to eat alive a
general, a military general because he did not trust his loyalty. There was one
weapon of mass destruction — he’s no longer in power. And I think that’s what
counts today.
I understand, probably more than anyone, what a threat Iraq was and the
people that threatened Iraq was. I was beneath the towers on September 11th
when they fell. And I — again, I just — I want to thank the President for the
honor in allowing me to go there, because I lost 23 people. I wear this — this
memorial band for the 23 I lost. They were defending the freedom of our
country. I got to go on their behalf to Iraq, to bring freedom to Iraq and take
one less threat away from us in this country. So, Mr. President