On September 22, 2003, Coalition Provisional Authority leader L. Paul Bremer made a case to the House Appropriations Committee in favor of $20 billion of grant aid for reconstruction in Iraq. He said: ” ‘If we fail to recreate Iraq with a sovereign democracy sustained by a solid economy we will have provided the terrorists with an incredible advantage in their war against us. …The $20.3 billion in grants to Iraq the President [Bush] seeks as part of this $87 billion supplemental bespeak grandeur of vision equal to the one which created the free world at the end of World War II. Iraqis living in freedom with dignity will set an example in this troubled region which so often spawns terrorists. A stable peaceful economically productive Iraq will serve American interests by making America safer.’ ”
– Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq, Page 197