Bush and the Mandela quote: no, he is not dead.

For those who still believe that President Bush thinks President Nelson Mandela is dead, here is the background on what President Bush was saying:

Referring to former South African president Nelson Mandela, who led the fight against apartheid to become a symbol of reconciliation and hope, Bush said of Iraq: "I heard somebody say, 'Now where's Mandela?'"

"Well, Mandela is dead. Because Saddam Hussein killed all the Mandelas."

The former Iraqi dictator, who was executed in December after his trial on charges of crimes against humanity, was "a brutal tyrant that divided people up and split families. And people are recovering from this," Bush said.

"So there is the psychological recovery that is taking place and it is hard work for them."

During key testimony earlier this month, US Ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, told Congress that Saddam had created a "pervasive climate of fear" across Iraq.

"No Nelson Mandela existed to emerge on the national political scene, anyone with his leadership talents would not have survived," he said.

"A new Iraq had to be built almost literally from scratch and the builders in most cases were themselves reduced to their most basic identity, ethnic or sectarian."

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