Cheney On Iraq In 1994: "Quagmire"
Wednesday August 15, 2007
Follow link to watch YouTube Clip
After you take down Saddam Hussain's government, he asks, "then what are you gonna put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government in Iraq, you can easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off... it's a quagmire ... if you try to take over Iraq... How many additional American causalities was Saddam worth? Our judgment was not very many, and I think we got it right."
Today Vice President Cheney is viewed as one of the chief architects of the war and its chief apologist.
The interview is available at YouTube, where it was posted five days ago and has been viewed more than a half-million times; LiveLeak, where it was posted four days ago and has been viewed about 28,000 times; as well as at YouTube, where it was posted today and has been viewed almost a half-million times. It appears to have originally been posted by GrandTheftCountry.
Editor&Publisher notes that the interview "first appeared on C-SPAN and was re-aired last week on C-SPAN 3."
This is better than the MemoryHole. I'm waiting for the original copyright owner (C-SPAN) to scream foul and demand that YouTube take down the clip.
References at NYT and Washington Times. It also made the San Francisco CBS affiliate and Radio Netherlands.
Comments
“Today Vice President Cheney is viewed as one of the chief architects of the war”
Viewed by whom? The wacko lefties like you?
More Hate mongering by Ms. Gill.
C
What - no comment on what Cheney actually said 13 years ago, Chuck? I was struck almost speechless, too — especially after reading the Editor&Publisher piece.
I think you have a very interesting definition of “hate mongering” — from my persective, based on the number of times you’ve accused me of it, it looks like this: if Chuck hates what is said, it’s mongering.
RE “Cheney as a chief architect” — Cheney was a member of Project for the New American Century which called for invading Iraq … here are two media references to Cheney as “architect” of the war 2005, 2007.
He’s the VP — the most influential VP in the history of the country, some say. He’s a former defense secretary, who led the first war in Iraq. He’s the war’s most vocal defender. How could he not be a primary architect?
SO let me see if I get this right…
WHat Cheney said back in 84 is relevant to now…. but Saddam having WMD and using them all through the 90s is not relevant to our using force to remove him in 03?
The left wing of our country sure does seem to have a lot of different standards depending on their politcal desires of the day.
US Politics said: “Cheney was a member of Project for the New American Century which called for invading Iraq ”
I fail to see the point. Bill Clinton is the one who signed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998.
http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/US/Legislation/ILA.htm
I would also point out that in 2002 While debating H.J. Res 114 that gave the President the go ahead to remove Saddam the Senate was ran by the Democrats and Tom Daschle.
Hi, 4liberty1st:
Cheney’s quote was from 1994, not 1984, and was after the First Gulf War. There was no widespread WMD use after the first gulf war — the only thing I remember is when we encouraged the Kurds to uprise and then backed off when SH put down the rebellion.
Clinton may have signed the act, but he didn’t start a war to implement it. The act doesn’t authorize starting a war or imposing a “democratic” government — it authorizes support for “Iraqi democratic opposition organizations.”
I wonder how much $$ was later asked for or authorized to implement the bill. Got any ideas?
Finally, re your failure to see the point about PNAC — it’s the group that called for invasion and “pre-emptive” warfare.
Why do you have to draw stick figures for people to see that both parties have colluded over the years to sell this country out