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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (540805)	1/4/2010 10:42:58 PM
From: J_F_Shepard	Respond to of 1576587

He gets credit for it.... "Who Said the War Would Pay for Itself?... The Nation \| March 13, 2008 By Victor Navasky & Christopher Cerf The following quotes were compiled by Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky in their capacity as CEO and president of the Institute of Expertology, which has just issued a report on the experts who were wrong about Iraq--before, during and after the invasion--under the title Mission Accomplished! Or, How We Won the War in Iraq; The Experts Speak (Simon & Schuster). Here, the "experts" speak about the costs of war. "Iraq is a very wealthy country. Enormous oil reserves. They can finance, largely finance the reconstruction of their own country. And I have no doubt that they will." Richard Perle, chair of Pentagon's Defense Policy Board July 11, 2002 "The likely economic effects [of a war in Iraq] would be relatively small.... Under every plausible scenario, the negative effect will be quite small relative to the economic benefits." Lawrence Lindsey, White House economic adviser September 16, 2002 "It is unimaginable that the United States would have to contribute hundreds of billions of dollars and highly unlikely that we would have to contribute even tens of billions of dollars." Kenneth Pollack, former director for Persian Gulf affairs, National Security Council September 2002 "The costs of any intervention would be very small." Glenn Hubbard, White House economic adviser October 4, 2002 "Iraq has tremendous resources that belong to the Iraqi people. And so there are a variety of means that Iraq has to be able to shoulder much of the burden for their own reconstruction." Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary February 18, 2003 "When it comes to reconstruction, before we turn to the American taxpayer, we will turn first to the resources of the Iraqi government and the international community." Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense March 27, 2003 "There is a lot of money to pay for this that doesn't have to be US taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people. We are talking about a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon." Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense testifying before the defense subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee March 27, 2003 "The United States is very committed to helping Iraq recover from the conflict, but Iraq will not require sustained aid." Mitchell Daniels, director, White House Office of Management and Budget April 21, 2003 "The allies [have contributed] $14 billion in direct aid." Dick Cheney, vice presidential debate with Democratic candidate John Edwards October 5, 2004 Actually, only $13 billion was pledged, and on the date Cheney spoke only $1 billion had arrived. As of October 28, 2007, the National Priorities Project estimated that the share of Iraq War costs that had been borne by American taxpayers exceeded $463 billion. --C.C.&V.N.

To: i-node who wrote (540805)	1/4/2010 10:52:57 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576587

Bush's U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, testifying before congress for one. There were many others. bestcyrano.org .."However, in the run up to the invasion, Wolfowitz stated that this would be war on the cheap. Iraq had oil wealth and they could pay for their own reconstruction. This perspective was stated various ways in various venues (see resources at end). "I resented the statement every time I heard it. Why would a nation – regardless of its wealth – pay for the destruction caused by an aggressor engaging in an invasion? Further, an invasion aimed largely at control of those very resources that were being promoted as the nation’s source of wealth? Now, Iraq supposedly has a multi-billion dollar surplus so the hew and cry is that they should being paying for their own reconstruction. Paying whom? The US gave out cost-plus contracts to largely U.S. corporations. A number of those corporations have done worse than a lousy job. Further, they did not hire Iraqi’s. They brought in laborers from outside the country. And, with the aid of the U.S. have operated outside of any law. Is Iraq now supposed to start paying those contractors? As, their failed attempt to kick Blackwater out of Iraq proved, they can’t just send those corporations packing. Are they supposed to pay out those contracts on the condition they stop work, AND hire Iraqi’s to replace them?" (Links @ link) Miscellaneous Resources Nightline, 1/22/08. False Statements Preceded War Paul Wolfowitz’s Happy Talk Five Years On Cost of Iraq War and Nation Building On Iraq – testimony of Paul Wolfowitz, Joshua Bolton and John Keane before Senate Foreign Relations Committee 7/29/2003. Wright, Guardian. 6/04/2003. Wolfowitz: Iraq war was about oil Washington Post, 3/20/2005. Wolfowitz Strives To Quell Criticism: The clip showed Wolfowitz telling a congressional panel, “It’s hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself,” and “The oil revenue of that country could bring between 50 and 100 billion dollars over the course of the next two or three years. We’re dealing with a country that could really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.” Schmitt, NY Times, 2/28/2003, Pentagon Contradicts General on Iraq Occupation Force’s Size: Enlisting countries to help to pay for this war and its aftermath would take more time, he said. “I expect we will get a lot of mitigation, but it will be easier after the fact than before the fact,” Mr. Wolfowitz said. 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.