Dick Cheney Speaks Wisdom

[ThiudareiksGunthigg]

“If you’re going to go in and try to topple Saddam Hussein, you have to go to Baghdad. Once you’ve got Baghdad, it’s not clear what you do with it. It’s not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that’s currently there now. Is it going to be a Shia regime, a Sunni regime or a Kurdish regime? Or one that tilts toward the Baathists, or one that tilts toward the Islamic fundamentalists?

How much credibility is that government going to have if it’s set up by the United States military when it’s there? How long does the United States military have to stay to protect the people that sign on for that government, and what happens to it once we leave? .... I think to have American military forces engaged in a civil war inside Iraq would fit the definition of quagmire, and we have absolutely no desire to get bogged down in that fashion.”

Dick Cheney, April 29, 1991.

Oooops ...

[Pra]

It seems the only solution is to get the hell out of dodge.

[eltrevo]

Dick Cheney Burn In Hell!

[Cwn]

Cheney: I give you my word! Honestly!

.. Wouldn't trust him.

lol

[Erik]

Where did you find that?

[MadBurgerMaker]

Please keep the spam to an absolute minimum (read: none) here, folks. Thanks. -MBM

[Rex331]

Do you mind if I ask your source for that quote?

A little thing called September 11th changed the entire world. America's world policy was altered to fit its newly self appointed role of Terrorism Exterminator.

Dick Cheney is a good citizen and great American.

[Kscott]

Well I SOMEWHAT agree with your first point, but

Dick Cheney is a good citizen and great American.

LOL, thats the funniest thing I have ever heard. If you mean crook and corrupt exectutive , then yeah, GREAT american :wink:

[RusskiSoldat]

I honestly don't see Hussein as so bad (he was compared to Hitler and Stalin in documentaries about him).
He was neither as socially backwards as Khamenei nor as detrimental to his country as Kim, in fact out of all the Mid East dictatorships, his was the best.
And just to clarify, yes I am supporting and deffending Hussein.

[eltrevo]

WHAT? he is a mass murderer and no one should speak up in his defense, it would make him a martyr.

[Erik]

Well.
The quote is real, and there is more!
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2072609&device=

We were there in the southern part of Iraq to the extent we needed to be there to defeat his forces and to get him out of Kuwait, but the idea of going into Baghdad, for example, or trying to topple the regime wasn't anything I was enthusiastic about. I felt there was a real danger here that you would get bogged down in a long drawn-out conflict

And

I also look at that part of the world as of vital interest to the United States; for the next hundred years it's going to be the world's supply of oil. We've got a lot of friends in the region. We're always going to have to be involved there. Maybe it's part of our national character, you know, we like to have these problems nice and neatly wrapped up, put a ribbon around it. You deploy a force, you win the war, and the problem goes away, and it doesn't work that way in the Middle East; it never has and isn't likely to in my lifetime

[danzig]

I honestly don't see Hussein as so bad (he was compared to Hitler and Stalin in documentaries about him).
He was neither as socially backwards as Khamenei nor as detrimental to his country as Kim, in fact out of all the Mid East dictatorships, his was the best.
And just to clarify, yes I am supporting and deffending Hussein.

With all do respect you dont consider gassing a village of your own people as not so bad? Or torture? Mass graves? Killing people who oppose/question his rule? So what is really bad in your opinion then? Arguing the wisdom of invading Iraq is perfectly valid question open to debate but defending Saddam? Im sorry but that is just insane.

Well.
The quote is real, and there is more!
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2072609&device=

Opinions do change over time you know and since none of us have the ability to read minds to claim any other motive then he simply changed his view. After all I can show you quotes were Madeline Albright claimed Iraq had WMD in 1990s but then magically changed her opinion in 2003...that is a bit more dubious then Cheney's change of heart imo.

[Cwn]

Stop all that Hussein talking!

Let's talk about what this tread states: Dick Cheney is a dick!!

[eltrevo]

you are right CWN he is a dick who should be burned at the stake as a traitor to this Country.

[Rex331]

At the time he was defending Bush Sr.'s decision to not invade Iraq. Of course he would make a strong case for his opinion in te pre-9/11 world.

EDIT: And of course, Dick Cheney is a good citizen and a great American. We Americans would be lucky if he would serve as president.

[removeduser_487563287433]

Do you mind if I ask your source for that quote?

A little thing called September 11th changed the entire world. America's world policy was altered to fit its newly self appointed role of Terrorism Exterminator.

You say these things as if they're admirable.

[Rex331]

You say these things as if they're admirable.

It was an attempt at an unbiased fact.

[Dr Zoidberg]

A little thing called September 11th changed the entire world.

And the only thing that didn't change of 11/09/01 was the United States understanding the impact of its aggressive and interfering foreign policies. What happened that day should have been a wake up call to re-evaluate how you interacted with other nations, especially those in the Middle East. But instead you get all gun-ho and start 2 wars which just make you more unpopular then you already were.

[ThiudareiksGunthigg]

Do you mind if I ask your source for that quote?

Not at all, old chap: the quote is taken from a New York Times story by Patrick Tyler, published 13 April, 1991. He repeated similar sentiments in other interviews:

The idea of going into Baghdad, for example, or trying to topple the regime wasn't anything I was enthusiastic about. I felt there was a real danger here that you would get bogged down in a long drawn-out conflict, that this was a dangerous, difficult part of the world; if you recall we were all worried about the possibility of Iraq coming apart, the Iranians restarting the conflict that they'd had in the eight-year bloody war with the Iranians and the Iraqis over eastern Iraq. We had concerns about the Kurds in the north, the Turks get very nervous every time we start to talk about an independent Kurdistan.


If Saddam wasn't there, his successor probably wouldn't be notably friendlier to the United States than he is. I also look at that part of the world as of vital interest to the United States; for the next hundred years it's going to be the world's supply of oil. We've got a lot of friends in the region. We're always going to have to be involved there. Maybe it's part of our national character, you know, we like to have these problems nice and neatly wrapped up, put a ribbon around it. You deploy a force, you win the war, and the problem goes away, and it doesn't work that way in the Middle East; it never has and isn't likely to in my lifetime.

(PBS Frontline documentary, The Gulf War, 1996)

A little thing called September 11th changed the entire world. America's world policy was altered to fit its newly self appointed role of Terrorism Exterminator.

Leaving the whole terrorism = Iraq 'quagmire' to one side, Cheney's words are still highly prescient.

Dick Cheney is a good citizen and great American.

Yes, he's been very good to Halliburton's shareholders. BTW, do you know what pressing 'other priorities' this great American had when he failed to serve in Vietnam?

[Erik]

At the time he was defending Bush Sr.'s decision to not invade Iraq. Of course he would make a strong case for his opinion in te pre-9/11 world.

And since 2000 he supports juniors descision to invade Iraq (oops, did I say 2000?).
So basically he is just very loyal to the Bush dynasty.

But the point is that he was right about Iraq.
He knew invading was a bad plan, and that toppeling Saddam would not solve the situation.