March 2003, Paul Wolfowitz testifying before the House Appropriations Committee:
There's a lot of money to pay for this that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people [...] and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years. [...] We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.
2½ years later:
Iraq's oil production has fallen below prewar levels to its lowest point in a decade, depriving the country's fledgling government of badly needed income and preventing the United States from achieving one of its main reconstruction goals. Iraq's oil wells — beset by equipment problems and saboteurs — are producing about 1.9 million barrels a day in net production, lower than the 2.6 million it was producing just before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES). [...] Production continues to slide despite a massive U.S.-funded effort to stabilize and boost output, repair critical parts of Iraq's oil infrastructure and develop a long-term plan for the Iraqi oil industry. The U.S. has spent $420 million fixing the oil network and allocated $1.7 billion to the sector.
—USAToday, "Pessimism surrounds falling oil production in Iraq"
Wolfowitz's keen financial planning skills are now being put to good use as President of the World Bank, of course, which should make developing countries everywhere heave heavy sighs of resignation.
TrackBackDid you see the interview with him that was in a recent “Atlantic”? He was remarkably detached from his failures. In fact, he didn’t seem to think that they had messed up on Iraq. Instead there was this dismissive handwaving and an attitude that, well you know, sometimes other things just intervene. I could imagine him pushing some wild scheme at the World Bank with a similar willingness to just brush off people trying to point out the problems.
Posted by: DW at October 12, 2005 11:43 AM