VIDEO: Dick Cheney (before he lost his mind) on Iraq as quagmire
Written by Henry Adams
Monday, 13 August 2007
This video shows Dick Cheney speaking on Apr. 15, 1994. -- Asked whether the U.S. should have "moved into Baghdad" in the 1991 Gulf War, Cheney explains why the answer was no, for these reasons: 1) "We would have been all alone." -- 2) "Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein’s government, then what are you going to put in its place?" -- 3) "You could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off." -- 4) "It’s a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq." -- 5) "How many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? Our judgment was, not very many, and I think we got it right." -- At the time this footage was recorded, Cheney was at the American Enterprise Institute; the following year he would become CEO of Halliburton....
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DICK CHENEY '94: INVADING BAGHDAD WOULD CREATE QUAGMIRE
YouTube August 10, 2007 (original video: Apr. 15, 1994)
A video has surfaced of Dick Cheney predicting an invasion of Iraq would lead to a “quagmire.”
In 1994, Cheney explained his reasons for not advocating an invasion of Iraq following the first gulf war:
Q: Do you think the U.S., or U.N. forces, should have moved into Baghdad?
A: No.
Q: Why not?
A: Because if we’d gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn’t have been anybody else with us. There would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq.
Once you got to Iraq and took it over, 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 of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off: part of it, the Syrians would like to have to the west, part of it -- eastern Iraq -- the Iranians would like to claim, they fought over it for eight years. In the north you’ve got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey.
It’s a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq.
The other thing was casualties. Everyone was impressed with the fact we were able to do our job with as few casualties as we had. But for the 146 Americans killed in action, and for their families, it wasn’t a cheap war. And the question for the president, in terms of whether or not we went on to Baghdad, took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein, was how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? Our judgment was, not very many, and I think we got it right.
