# Invasion of Iraq, Operation: Iraqi Freedom, or...?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invasion-of-iraq-operation-iraqi-freedom-or/713051>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 19, 2015, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invasion-of-iraq-operation-iraqi-freedom-or/713051 "2015-02-19T01:10:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gerald\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Gerald\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerald_II)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invasion-of-iraq-operation-iraqi-freedom-or/713051/1 "2015-02-19T01:10:34Z")

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Sorry for the thread hijack in the “Obama was lying about…” thread.

> [@Obama was lying when he said he opposed gay marriage... anyone surprised?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-was-lying-when-he-said-he-opposed-gay-marriage-anyone-surprised/712306/145):
>
> It was about proving it\* to his father\*, at least that’s how he explained it to himself. That meant, again in his own mind, winning _his father’s_ war, the one his father stopped undone, and clearing some of the demons from his drunken wastrel 20’s and 30’s and all the comparisons to his father’s life that he got told about constantly. Again, it doesn’t have to make sense to be a reason.

If it doesn’t make sense then there should at least be some kind of proof to go along with it.

> [@Obama was lying when he said he opposed gay marriage... anyone surprised?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-was-lying-when-he-said-he-opposed-gay-marriage-anyone-surprised/712306/146):
>
> Except that if your reasons don’t make sense, then they have as little basis as someone saying, “Obama pushed for the ACA because he wanted to see a piece of legislation he knew would be nicknamed ‘Obamacare.’”

> [@](#):
>
> None of any influence.

I’ll look into that.

> [@](#):
>
> Since they had taken a strong position in urging Clinton to do it, even before 9/11, and came up with most of the lies told to support it, hell yes.

So there were people who, during the Clinton Administration, wanted to take Saddam out via force, who influenced the Bush Administration? Presumably these people were not being influenced by Halliburton or proving themselves to H.W. Bush.

> [@](#):
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> They thought it would be over in weeks and would pay for itself. They really did. What really happened was never considered possible, and those, like Shinseki, who warned them otherwise got expelled from school for it.

Except possibly for Dick Cheney who said, during the George H.W. Bush administration, that doing so would split up Iraq into different factions and get the US into a quagmire.

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**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/invasion-of-iraq-operation-iraqi-freedom-or/713051/2 "2015-02-19T01:39:40Z")

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> [@Gerald\_II](#):
>
> Except possibly for Dick Cheney who said, during the George H.W. Bush administration, that doing so would split up Iraq into different factions and get the US into a quagmire.

Many times I heard that it was said at the same time with the context of what he did later in Iraq, the point was that since he was aware of that then ignoring even his own warnings later then showed to all that Cheney had no moral character.

That was confirmed too when he continued to defend torture last year,[torture that by “coincidence” got him the fake evidence needed to convince many to invade Iraq](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-husseini/what-both-sides-are-ignor_b_6315678.html).