Thread: Cheney video causing uproar

by Reinout van Wagtendonk and Louise Dunne
14-08-2007

Comments made back in 1994 by the then US Secretary of Defence Dick Cheney about Iraq are causing an uproar in America. In a videotaped interview, the current Vice-President explains why he thinks an invasion would be a bad idea. The video has come to light on the same day US troops in Iraq launched a new offensive - Operation Phantom Strike.

The video is a gift to opponents of the Iraq war - and they've seized on it with delight. Dick Cheney, warning 13 years ago why launching an invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq could only lead to disaster.

"Ah, once you got to Iraq and took it over, and took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to 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."


Cheney justifies 1991 decision

During the first Gulf War in 1991, Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defence under the former President Bush. In the video, he justifies the US decision at that time not to push the war through from Kuwait to Baghdad, and force a regime change.

"How many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? And our judgement was - not very many and I think we got it right."


Now Vice-President, Cheney is seen as one of the most important architects of the Iraq war. The White House has not reacted to the video, but Bush, Cheney and others have often said that the attacks of 11 September 2001 changed the world, and made any previous decisions irrelevant. However, reports and memoirs from the 1990's show that Cheney had his sights set on Iraq long before 9/11.

Operation Phantom Strike
The Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki called on Monday for a crisis summit to try and save his bitterly divided government. And the US army announced a new offensive - Operation Phantom Strike. The Pentagon said the operation will be primarily aimed at al-Qaeda and Sunni militants, but will also tackle Shi'ite militias.

It's the third offensive since President George Bush authorised a troop surge in Iraq last January. General Odierno, the second most senior US commander in Iraq, called it a preventive operation to stop the insurgents who are being driven out of Baghdad from regrouping elsewhere in the country. Until now, none of the various US offensives have succeeded in improving either the political or the security situation in Iraq.

So, more than four years after the US invasion, Cheney's long-ago warning of what such a war might mean is prophetic:"

YouTube - Dick Cheney '94: Invading Baghdad Would Create Quagmire


Too bad Cheney didn't listen to this guy....:whistling:

Proof positive that Bush is the decider.

Originally Posted by kmiller1610

Proof positive that Bush is the decider.

I don't understand you got that.

Originally Posted by kmiller1610

Proof positive that Bush is the decider.

More like proof positive Cheney is a liar and a traitor.

Do ya think maybe things change in 15 years??

Originally Posted by justoneman

Do ya think maybe things change in 15 years??

What changed? The fact that 3000 Americans weren't worth invading Iraq?

Originally Posted by justoneman

Do ya think maybe things change in 15 years??

15?
1994 - 2003 = 9 years

Sure things change, but the content of what he said in 94 was just as valid in 03.

Originally Posted by michaelr

I don't understand you got that.

Well if Cheney is pulling the strings, he's schizoid (which I do not think is true).

If Bush is the decider, then he over-ruled Cheney and Cheney is supporting the policy as a good Veep is supposed to (which I do think is true).

Originally Posted by justoneman

Do ya think maybe things change in 15 years??

He called for the invasion in 1998 according to PNAC's letter, 4 years later while he was involved with Halliburton. He now how a vested interest in war, and has profited a great deal from said relationship.

The reason the US did not continue into Iraq during the first Gulf War was the history of the place which is why many of our allies refused to join in the invasion in 2003.

What changed in our minds was 911. Never mind th fact Iraq had nothing to do with that event. Americans got parnoid about WMD and Bush and Cheney were able to use that paranoia to overcome what made good sense, even to them previously. We are now paying for letting fear over rule reason. Remember Cheney pushed the 1% doctrine after 9/11. If there was a one percent chance of someone hitting us we were better off taking them out than waiting.

Not many of us would take a 1% chance on much of anything else, yet we let these guys lead us down a path to where the rest of the world will not trust much of what we say due to the worst mistake in foreign relations since a little internal strife in the Austrian Empire started WW I.