Off the Mark on Cost of War, Reception by Iraqis (washingtonpost.com): "Wolfowitz, in February 2003, dismissed reports that Pentagon budget specialists had put the cost of reconstruction at $60 billion to $95 billion during the first year -- in retrospect, relatively accurate forecasts. In testimony to Congress on March 27, 2003, Wolfowitz said Iraq 'can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.' In fact, the administration has already sought more than $150 billion for the Iraq effort.
In its predictions a year ago, the Bush administration similarly underestimated the resistance the United States would face in Iraq. 'I really do believe we will be greeted as liberators,' Vice President Cheney said in a March 16 interview.
... By yesterday, 574 American and 100 other coalition troops had died in Iraq. As many as 6,400 Iraqi soldiers are believed to have died in combat, and the insurgency continues to claim the lives of Iraqi civilians. "
- posted by geoff @ #