To: KLP who wrote (164352 ) 6/17/2005 4:10:55 AM From: geode00 Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 281500 For this Wolfowitz receives a promotion from Bush. It's frightening enough to think that Wolfowitz was deliberately lying. It's even worse to think that Wolfowitz, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al BELIEVED THIS. OMG NYTimes Feb 2003 =========http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/consequences/2003/0228pentagoncontra.htm "...In his testimony, Mr. Wolfowitz ticked off several reasons why he believed a much smaller coalition peacekeeping force than General Shinseki envisioned would be sufficient to police and rebuild postwar Iraq. He said there was no history of ethnic strife in Iraq, as there was in Bosnia or Kosovo. He said Iraqi civilians would welcome an American-led liberation force that "stayed as long as necessary but left as soon as possible," but would oppose a long-term occupation force. And he said that nations that oppose war with Iraq would likely sign up to help rebuild it. "I would expect that even countries like France will have a strong interest in assisting Iraq in reconstruction," Mr. Wolfowitz said. He added that many Iraqi expatriates would likely return home to help.... Mr. Wolfowitz spent much of the hearing knocking down published estimates of the costs of war and rebuilding, saying the upper range of $95 billion was too high, and that the estimates were almost meaningless because of the variables. Moreover, he said such estimates, and speculation that postwar reconstruction costs could climb even higher, ignored the fact that Iraq is a wealthy country, with annual oil exports worth $15 billion to $20 billion. "To assume we're going to pay for it all is just wrong," he said....