Paul Wolfowitz quotes

Paul Wolfowitz is an American politician, diplomat, and foreign policy expert. Known for serving as Deputy Secretary of Defense and for his influential role in shaping U.S. policy during the George W. Bush administration, particularly regarding the Iraq War. He has also served as President of the World Bank and has been a prominent figure in international relations. Here are 38 of his quotes:

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-Saddam 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.

Paul Wolfowitz

Firing employees, that's unfortunately a part of doing business.

Paul Wolfowitz

This word 'imminent' keeps coming up. The President never said that there was an imminent threat.

Paul Wolfowitz

We know that in Basra and in the other cities the people do not want to repeat the experience of 12 years ago where they rise up against Saddam and then they're slaughtered. But before we take care of the killers that are left behind in those cities, we've got to take care of the regime. It's almost like cutting off the head of the snake and then the rest of the body will go.

Paul Wolfowitz

...the importance of leadership and what it consists of: not lecturing and posturing and demanding, but demonstrating that your friends will be protected and taken care of, that your enemies will be punished, and that those who refuse to support you will regret having done so.

Paul Wolfowitz

I like globalization; I want to say it works, but it is hard to say that when six hundred million people are slipping backwards.

Paul Wolfowitz

Sometimes corruption is slowed by shedding light into what was previously shadowed.

Paul Wolfowitz

A new regime would have become the United States' responsibility. Conceivably, this could have led the United States into a more or less permanent occupation of a country that could not govern itself, but where the rule of a foreign occupier would be increasingly resented.

Paul Wolfowitz

I can't imagine anyone here wanting to spend another $30 billion to be there for another 12 years.

Paul Wolfowitz

Up for grabs.

Paul Wolfowitz

There's a lot of money to pay for this. It doesn't have to be U. S. taxpayer money. We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.

Paul Wolfowitz

There's definitely a rule in the Convention against humiliating prisoners and I'd have to see exactly the interview to see whether that in itself violated the Convention, but the Convention is very clear that prisoners have got to be treated properly. We are treating the Iraqi prisoners extremely well. In fact I think they get good food and shelter and they're free from the horrible commanders they used to work for. I think most of them are much happier, frankly.

Paul Wolfowitz

We don't start a job that we can't finish... that's the American way.

Paul Wolfowitz

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

Paul Wolfowitz

Generally speaking, the stronger the connection between the financing and the ultimate beneficiary, the better the result.

Paul Wolfowitz

The terrorists in Iraq believe their attacks on innocent people will weaken our resolve. They believe we will run from a challenge. They are mistaken. Americans are not the running kind.

Paul Wolfowitz

One of the things that ultimately led me to leave mathematics and go into political science was thinking I could prevent nuclear war.

Paul Wolfowitz

For the private sector to flourish, special privilege must give way to equal opportunity and equal risk for all.

Paul Wolfowitz

For one thing I tend not to see myself in various moulds that people fit me into.

Paul Wolfowitz

That sense of what happened in Europe in World War II has shaped a lot of my views.

Paul Wolfowitz

The most striking thing is that even before Osama bin Laden was killed, he seemed largely irrelevant to the Arab Spring.

Paul Wolfowitz

Public action should seek to expand the set of opportunities of those who have the least voice and fewest resources and capabilities.

Paul Wolfowitz