Donald Rumsfeld Iraqi Quotations

I think what you are seeing is the Iraqi people, for the first time, wrestling with very tough, fundamental issues that are important to them, to their future, reflecting the history of the country. They've been proceeding in a very orderly, peaceful way,

Every day, the number of Iraqi security forces are getting bigger, and they're getting better, and they're getting more experienced,

Even with the large and growing number of forces on the Iraqi border, Gen. Franks achieved something seemingly impossible: a tactical surprise,

With each passing day, the Iraqi regime is losing control over more of the country,

The one thing everyone's agreed upon for sure is that we simply have to keep increasing the number of Iraqis that are involved in the security side,

the sooner it is done, the fewer Iraqis that will be killed, the fewer Americans or coalition forces that will be killed.

The terrorists won't win. The Iraqi people will win,

would signal the Iraqi regime that they can continue their violations of the U.N. resolutions.

The Iraqi people who are involved in this process are relatively new to the political process. It will take them some time I suspect.

find Iraqis who can assist in providing police support in those cities and various types of stabilizing and security assistance.

Success will only occur if there's progress on the political front so that the Iraqi people see that in fact it is their country. It is a sovereign nation. They are in control of it,

We're gonna turn the Iraqi election into a big pageant, ... It'll be huge, as big as my hair.

The goal is to have the pressure be so great that Saddam Hussein cooperates, ... Short of that -- an unwillingness to cooperate -- the goal is to have the capabilities of the coalition so clear and so obvious that there is an enormous disincentive for the Iraqi military to fight against the coalition.

The only way the inspectors can find anything is if the Iraqi government cooperates and shows it to them, ... Inspectors can't find things. They can only inspect what they've been shown.

Who said that? I certainly did not say that. How could you even ask that question when it was the Iraqi regime that ignored 16 resolutions of the U.N. over a period of many years.

The important fact is ... that every day, every week, every month the Iraqi security forces are larger, they're better equipped, they're better trained and they're more experienced. And that is the central fact,

They have to do it for themselves, ... There isn't an Iraqi that comes into this country and visits with me that doesn't say that. They know that. They know that they're the ones that are going to have to grab that country, and it's time.

Baghdad is bustling with commerce. Universities and hospitals are open for business, ... A free press is flourishing, Iraqi banks have started taking applications for small business loans so Iraqi entrepreneurs can create jobs.

Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed brutal dictators, and the Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom,

The Coalition of Iraqi forces have completed the move for all practical purposes from the north to the south. They are operating in one way or another in much, if not all, parts of the city at the present time.

should be a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty.

I think that will save American lives and save coalition lives and be a great benefit to the Iraqi people to be free of that,

I think it's important to think of the setting six months ago, ... Six months ago, the Iraqis refused to have inspectors in their country. They were ignoring 16 resolutions of the United Nations.

I honestly believe that these two are particularly bad characters and that it's important for the Iraqi people to see them, to know they are gone, to know they are dead and to know they are not coming back,

Our hope is that as we build up Iraqi forces we will be able to relieve the stress on our forces and see a reduction in coalition forces over some period of time, probably post-Iraqi election.