“How long would we have had to stay in Baghdad to keep that government in place? What would happen to the government once U.S. forces wthdrew? How many casualties should the United States accept in that effort to try to create clarity and stability in a situation that is inherently unstable?”
Dick Cheney, in a 1991 speech defending Bush1’s decision not to drive Saddam Hussein from power and install new Iraqi leadership. The passage is quoted in Al Franken’s new book, The Truth (With Jokes), which gets one thumb up in tomorrow’s New York Times Book Review.
This comes as no surprise to me since I actually remembered all of the reasons the first Bush administration gave for not toppling Saddam Hussein, and even remember Cheney’s views on the matter at the time.
This doesn’t necessarily make any point, other than Cheney obviously changed his mind. Or maybe Cheney never actually changed his mind, but since his boss at the time (George H. W. Bush) didn’t want to get involved in toppling Saddam, Cheney either toed the party line or resigned as SecDef.
Just because there are hard questions that could be asked about the invasion of Iraq doesn’t necessarily weigh-in on the discussion of whether or not the action should have been taken.
Hoo, boy, I saw those phat ketboarders doing impossible things on the morning dew on the X-Games. They rock sores, whatever than means. They showed a mentor talking to noobs, “Beee teh ketboard! Feeel teh dew!” :smack: