For Immediate Release
May 27, 2003

Global Message

From Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz's Prepared Testimony for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:

• We are committed to helping Iraqis build what could be a model for the Middle East: a government that protects the rights of its citizens, that represents all ethnic and religious groups, and that will help bring Iraq into the international community of peace-seeking nations.

• Success in Iraq will continue to demoralize those who preach doctrines of hatred, oppression and subjugation. It will encourage those who dream the ancient dream of freedom.

• Most delays in restoring services in Iraq are not primarily a result of the war, but rather of decades of tyrannical neglect. Iraq's wealth was poured into building palaces and tanks and procuring weapons of mass destruction - instead of caring for the Iraqi people.

• Our most urgent task in the post-Saddam era is to establish secure and stable conditions throughout the country that will provide the basics of normal life and services. Beyond that, it is important to create a climate in which people can express their political views free of fear and intimidation.

• Perhaps, the single most important factor in achieving a more secure environment is the active engagement and support of the people of Iraq.

• We continue to work towards the establishment of an Iraqi Interim Administration. It will assume increasingly greater responsibility for the administration of Iraq. The IIA will draw from all of Iraq's religious and ethnic groups and will provide a way for Iraqis to begin immediately to direct their country's economic and political reconstruction.