[...]"We want to convey that we'll be there, for emergency use, for a long time," he explains at another point in the telephone interview. To reduce the isolation and potential vulnerability of U.S. military forces, Wolfowitz says "internationalization is right" as a strategy for postwar administration of Iraq. But he insists that this process must not be under United Nations control.

"It should be as many other countries as you can bring in, especially Central Europeans," he argues. The Central Europeans can be especially helpful because they have recently been liberated from communist regimes and can assist the Iraqis in making a transition.

Asked about the status of Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress, who is often seen as a political favorite of Wolfowitz and other neoconservatives, the Pentagon official said this: "We ought to be supporting everyone who can do something useful. I think the decision has been made to support democracy and a big tent."

If this has been Wolfowitz's war in terms of its strategic goals, then it's clearly far from over. To judge by his comments, the Pentagon's leading planner isn't thinking about future conflicts against adversaries such as Syria and Iran but about making sure that America has truly won this war in Iraq.