"Desert Storm II would be in a walk in the park... The case for 'regime change' boils down to the huge benefits and modest costs of liberating Iraq."- Kenneth Adelman, member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, 8/29/02
"Having defeated and then occupied Iraq, democratizing the country should not be too tall an order for the world's sole superpower." - William Kristol, Weekly Standard editor, and Lawrence F. Kaplan, New Republic senior editor, 2/24/03
"The idea that it would take several hundred thousand U.S. forces, I think, is far from the mark." - Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 2/27/03
"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, Chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, 7/11/02
"Now, it isn't going to be over in 24 hours, but it isn't going to be months either." - Richard Perle, Chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, 7/11/02
"I think it will go relatively quickly...weeks rather than months." - Vice President Dick Cheney, 3/16/03
"I will bet you the best dinner in the gaslight district of San Diego that military action will not last more than a week. Are you willing to take that wager?" - Bill O'Reilly, 1/29/03
"Thank you all very much. Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended."
- George W. Bush 1/2/03
"We know where they [WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
- Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 3/3/03