Paul Wolfowitz...in his own words...Dec 6,2002

[SoCalDem]

http://www.commonwealthclub.org/archive/02/02-12wolfowitz-speech.html



Here's a clip from the Q&A section

Q: When a long-standing despot falls, chaos ensues - witness Suharto, Marcos, Tito, Duvalier. What are U.S. plans to ensure that post-Saddam Iraq is not the mother of all quagmires?

A: That's a horrible misstatement of history. One of the things I'm proudest of having some role in working for Mr. Shultz was helping to assist the democratic transition in the Philippines that removed Marcos. Not that the country solved all its problems that way, but it is certainly wrong that chaos ensued. The chaos in Indonesia, such as it is, is not because Suharto left, it's because he created an economic catastrophe before he left. That's part of why he's gone. Indonesians, with all of the difficulties, including having gone through that economic tidal wave, are doing pretty well. I worry a lot about the risk of using weapons of mass destruction. All these worries about instability if Saddam goes are completely misplaced. He is a major source of instability - through what he does, through how he treats his people. There's every reason to think that at some level or another, maybe modest, maybe very good, the Iraqi people are going to produce one of the better governments of the Arab world. I notice that the questioner didn't ask about Romania or all those other countries in Central and Eastern Europe that have struggled through pretty well.

Romania is my favorite for a number of reasons, but particularly because it is the source of one of the better Iraqi jokes I've heard. The only thing I miss about the old Soviet Union is they used to produce the best political humor in the world, and now that seems to be left to the Iraqis. Ten years ago there was an Iraqi joke about Saddam's barber. It seems that Saddam went to his barber and the barber asked him, "What do you think about Ceausescu?" Saddam kept coming back and the barber kept asking the same question week after week and finally Saddam got impatient and said, "Every time I come here you ask me 'What do I think about Ceausescu?' and every time I give you the same answer. What's the matter, are you stupid or something?" The barber said, "Oh no, no sir, it's just that every time I ask you the hair goes up in the back of your neck and it's much easier to cut it."