[Vision2020] They Said What?

[Tom Hansen]

To comemorate the fifth anniversary of the liberation/invasion of Iraq, 
perhaps we should reflect upon . . .

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"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
The Pentagon's Defense Policy Board
July 11, 2002 

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"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

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"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 

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"The costs of any intervention would be very small." 

Glenn Hubbard
White House economic adviser
October 4, 2002 

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"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 

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"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 

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"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 

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"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 

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"The allies [have contributed] $14 billion in direct aid." 

Dick Cheney
vice presidential debate with
Democratic candidate John Edwards
October 5, 2004 

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"People who ridicule others while hiding behind anonymous monikers in chat-
room forums are neither brave nor clever." 

- Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch (August 21,
2007)

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