In August, 1992, then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney answered questions after giving a speech at the Discovery Institute in Seattle. Operation Desert Storm had been over for 18 months, and the troops were pretty much home. 146 Americans had been killed, and Kuwait and its oil had been liberated.
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
"And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth?" Cheney said then in response to a question.
"And the answer is not very damned many. So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq."
... Going to Baghdad, Cheney said in 1992, would require a much different approach militarily than fighting in the open desert outside the capital, a type of warfare that U.S. troops were not familiar, or comfortable fighting.
2007-08-28 06:09:36 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Military
"All of a sudden you've got a battle you're fighting in a major built-up city, a lot of civilians are around, significant limitations on our ability to use our most effective technologies and techniques," Cheney said.
"Once we had rounded him up and gotten rid of his government, then the question is what do you put in its place? You know, you then have accepted the responsibility for governing Iraq."
.... in his 1992 remarks in Seattle, Cheney foreshadowed a future in Iraq that is remarkably close to conditions found there today, suggesting that it would be difficult to bring the country's various political factions together and that U.S. troops would be vulnerable to insurrection and guerrilla attacks.
2007-08-28 06:10:04 · update #1
"Now what kind of government are you going to establish? Is it going to be a Kurdish government, or a Shi'ia government, or a Sunni government, or maybe a government based on the old Baathist Party, or some mixture thereof? You will have, I think by that time, lost the support of the Arab coalition that was so crucial to our operations over there," he said.
The end result, Cheney said in 1992, would be a messy, dangerous situation requiring a long-term presence by U.S. forces.
"I would guess if we had gone in there, I would still have forces in Baghdad today, we'd be running the country. We would not have been able to get everybody out and bring everybody home," Cheney said, 18 months after the war ended.
this last part is a real kicker, yea, everything changed after 9/11 ... for US! not Iraq ... what a mess
2007-08-28 06:11:20 · update #2
amazing how you can transform from a near-decent person into a non-Caucasian hating piece of scum just by adding the title "vice president" to your resume.
2007-08-28 06:21:28 · answer #1 · answered by Lily Iris 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Was the Congress right in 1998 when they passed the Iraq Liberation Act at the behest of President Clinton? Link below.
2007-08-28 13:32:47 · answer #2 · answered by desertviking_00 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Cheney is the biggest liar of any , even old Bush, Cheney lies to fit his will. This is all going down ,. we have lost the war in Iraq loosing more troops every day and look at their Congress just a bunch of shameful acting men I have ever seen. Who is next, where if there is any end in sight. We need to have a complete clean house day and send those Cons on their way to whoever will let them enter their state.
2007-08-28 13:19:03 · answer #3 · answered by Nicki 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Who cares. Cheney won't be in that much longer and Hillary says things are going good now in Iraq so whats the problem?
2007-08-28 13:15:24 · answer #4 · answered by Brianne 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Things happened in the ensuing 9 years. Situations change. Get a life.
2007-08-28 13:17:49 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
HILLARY CLINTON, MOST OF CONGRESS, THE UNITED NATIONS, VOTED FOR US TO GO IN TO IRAQ.
THEN UNITED NATIONS WARNED SADDAM OVER AND OVER IF HE DIDN'T RESOLVED THE PROBLEM OF HIM NOT COMPLYING WITH THE 17 RESOLUTIONS HE HAD NOT KEPT WE WERE COMING IN.
HE HAD WMD AT ONE TIME AS HE GASSED THOUSANDS OF HIS OWN PEOPLE, INCLUDING BABIES, WOMEN, CHILDREN...LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF THEM.
CONGRESS AND HILLARY CLINTON SAW THE SAME INTELLIGENCE REPORTS AS PRESIDENT BUSH..SO THE BLAME GOES TO THEM AS WELL. THE UN PUSHED THIS AS WELL. GERMANY, BRITAIN, AUSTRALIA, JAPAN JOINED IN TOO.
SO LETS NOT FORGET WHEN DARTS ARE BEING THROWN AT PRESIDENT BUSH THERE ARE OTHER TARGETS.
2007-08-28 13:25:26 · answer #6 · answered by mary 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
good question Mr.Cheney was not the vice president then and thy need to make sure thy got reelected
2007-08-28 13:18:24 · answer #7 · answered by paulcondo 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋