Submitted by Jerry Batey

 

Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2003

 

Easier said then done:

 

"I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk."

  -- Kenneth Adelman, Pentagon's Defense Policy Board, in February 2002.

 

"I don't think it would be that tough a fight."  -- Vice president Dick Cheney, Sept. 8, 2002

 

"There may be pockets of resistance but very few Iraqis are going to fight to defend Saddam Hussein."

 -- Richard N. Perle, Chairman of Defense Advosory Board, Feb. 25.

 

"My guess is even significant elements of the Republican Guard are likely as well to want to avoid  conflict with the U.S. forces and are likely to step aside."

     -- Vice President Dick Cheney, March 16.

 

"The days of Saddam Hussein are numbered."

   -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, March 20.

 

"Nobody with any knowledge of military matters expected there to be no resistance.  If anything is unexpected, it's the speed of the advance and the relative absence of organized resistance." 

-- Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of Defense, March 24.

 

"What you'd like to do is have it be a short conflict.  The best way to do that would be to have such a shock on the system that the Iraqi regime would have to assume early on the end was inevitable." 

-- Gen Richard Myers, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, March 25.

 

"This war has just begun."  -- President Bush, March 25.

 

"We cannot know the duration of this war."  -- President Bush, March 26.