tags: Iraq War, Dick Cheney, streaming video
This streaming video shows part of an interview with Dick Cheney from April 15th, 1994, where he discusses why invading Iraq would be a bad idea. He refers to invading Iraq as "creating a quagmire" and he claims that "not very many" American soldiers' lives were worth losing to take out Saddam during the Gulf War. So what happened since then? Did his brain rot out of his head? [1:22]
Incidentally, don't forget that ChickenHawk Cheney never had to worry about ever being killed in combat: HE took 5 deferments in order to keep from even serving. Who can forget his comment that "I had other priorities in the 60's". But there are thousands of good Americans who clearly have nothing better to do than to die in a war that is a scam, a war that has no purpose, goals or end in sight!
- Log in to post comments
We discussed this a couple of days ago on dailykos. I suggested that peak oil (Hubbert's Peak) has changed everything. In 1994 oil supply exceeded demand. Now the world's largest field in Saudi Arabia is in decline and demand from China is up.
We need Iraq's oil, so we sent our troops over to take it.
Oil? OK, fine, as one commentator I saw pointed out, Cheney was clearly aware of issues that the Bush administration took NO steps to address. It is an obvious case of negligence.
What you're forgetting is that 9/11 changed everything... *big sigh* :-/
Unbelievable!! I'm now wondering whether Cheney truly believed this at the time or he was simply role playing for Bush Sr. Surely the neocons didn't change his mind on the matter.
Sorry but don't you get it? Our political leaders are arrogant fools whose only stakes in the policies they enact are political and financial, on a personal level they are only touched if they're not re-elected or if their backers cut the purse strings. They play to the lowest common denominator, the masses, who in turn are manipulated by special interests that control the media or access to the media. Patriotism be damned as long as they get re-elected to pass those bills that will most favor the people that have made virtually all of them millionaires.
Sorry for the screed but when I look at what our political system has become it makes me both sad and in turn irrationally angry
Dwight: And just why would your anger be "irrational"? I'd say by now it's the folks who aren't angry, who aren't being rational. Never mind the Middle East, ShrubCo and the PNAC gallery are methodically dismantling and pillaging our own nation. That's damn well worth getting angry about!
herb; and what exactly, did IRAQ have to do with 9-11?? NOTHING. why do you persist in believing this lie, especially when there is not one shred of information to support this irrational belief?
in fact, if you want to blame a country for 9-11, then by all means, blame SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Arabia provided most of the terrorists who committed the atrocities of 9-11, but our fearless leader, BUSH instead decided to sneak his old family friends -- the Saudi royal family, who just so happen to be related to the lead terrorist of them all, Osama bin Laden -- out of America after 9-11. bush never did anything to Saudi, never even said one negative word against Saudi Arabia, unless of course, he originally meant to invade Saudi but got lost on the way and ended up bombing the shit out of Iraq.
THAT scenario makes more sense than your irrational desire to believe a lie.
Sorry - I need to get better at conveying sarcasm in blog comments! Of course 9/11 is unrelated to Iraq, but you know that if you showed this video to Cheney, he would use that argument and chide you for not seeing the obvious difference between then and now.
BTW, I'm no Bushie, but the politically neutral FactCheck.org has debunked some myths about what happened with the Saudi royal family.
In subsequent discussion regarding this clip, it has been pointed out to me that 9-11 had nothing to do with the decision to invade and occupy Iraq, as there is ample evidence (from various members of the administration at the time, under sworn testimony in the 9-11 congressional hearings) that plans were being made to do so from the very first days in office -- long before 9-11. All that 9-11 did was to provide them with an excuse to act on those plans.
The only thing that the clip shows is Cheney spouting the party line from the administration in 1994. The fact that it has proven eerily prescient is only another indication that irony is alive and well in the universe. Cheney likely never possessed the opinions he so eloquently committed to video tape in that interview.