Paul Wolfowitz Iraq Quotations

I mean, we're going to probably debate the Iraq war for at least as long as I'm alive.

Our goal in Iraq is a democratic Iraq that truly respects the wishes of the people of Iraq, ... We can set up some parameters for a process, but we cannot write a blueprint.

We know that to arrive at these goals, there is no greater engine than the industrious and well-educated people of Iraq themselves, ... Along with our coalition partners, we would help Iraqis begin the process of economic and political reconstruction. We would assist the people of Iraq in putting their country on a path towards prosperity and freedom.

As impressive as that election was, Iraq still faces a difficult road ahead,

In recent days, the Syrians have been shipping killers into Iraq to try to kill Americans -- we don't welcome that,

Iraq has no history of ethnic conflict.

We did not go to war in Afghanistan or in Iraq to, quote, 'impose democracy.' We went to war in both places because we saw those regimes as a threat to the United States.

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 secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army. Hard to imagine.

There has been a good deal of comment — some of it quite outlandish — about what our postwar requirements might be in Iraq. Some of the higher end predictions we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post- Iraq, are wildly off the mark. It is 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 to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army — hard to imagine.

I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq. Those who want to come and help are welcome. Those who come to interfere and destroy are not.