At a town hall meeting with Iraqi-Americans in Dearborn, Michigan, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, explains: “First-and this is really the overarching principle-the United States seeks to liberate Iraq, not occupy Iraq…. If the president should decide to use force, let me assure you again that the United States would be committed to liberating the people of Iraq, not becoming an occupation force.”- February 23, 2003
“The Iraqi people understand what this crisis is about. Like the people of France in the 1940s, they view us as their hoped-for liberator. They know that America will not come as a conqueror. Our plan, as President Bush has said, is to remain as long as necessary, and not one day more. And the Iraqis also recognize that the economic and political reconstruction of their country will be difficult. It will take their best efforts with the help of the United States and our coalition partners. But they are driven by the dream of a just and democratic society in Iraq.”- Paul Wolfowitz, March 11, 2003.
“There’s 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,” he says. “On a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50bn and $100bn over the course of the next two or three years.”- March 27, 2003
“For bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.”- May 30, 2003
What is a just punishment?