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Cheney in '94: Invading Baghdad Would Lead to a "Quagmire" [VIDEO]

Posted by Adam Howard at 7:06 AM on August 12, 2007.


Dick Cheney making sense while talking about Iraq? It actually happened once...in 1994.
What Happened to Dick Cheney?

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In this interview from April 15th, 1994, Dick Cheney reveals the reasons why invading Baghdad and toppling Saddam Hussein wouldn't be a great idea. He also stipulates that "not very many" American soldiers' lives were worth losing to take out Saddam during the Gulf War. It's utterly bizarre to see footage of Cheney where he actually seems remotely sane and remotely interested in preserving human life. Many have theorized that for years Cheney had been wanting to invade Iraq and was just looking for the opportunity. So was he lying in this 1994 interview, which is not at all surprising, or did neoconservatives get into his head shortly thereafter?

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Tagged as: middle east, iraq, cheney

Adam Howard is the editor of PEEK.


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Oil trumps smarts
Posted by: veive on Aug 12, 2007 8:45 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Looks like Cheney's brain leaked out of his head since 1994. I guess his Halliburton experience primed him for all that oil potential and allowed big bucks to bury his previously sound judgment.

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He Knew The Whole Time
Posted by: Markson on Aug 12, 2007 9:11 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Cheney knew exactly what we were getting into Iraq. This video just makes his insistence that the administration was somehow surprised by the chaos of Iraq all the more disturbing. Before I considered Cheney an act of supreme incompetence, arrogance, and downright evil.

Now, he is just evil--and he's exceptionally competent at it. The whole point of Iraq was to unleash a global war, in which Cheney and other war and oil profiteers could make a fortune and establish totalitarian rule.

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Aw, c'mon!
Posted by: JoshuaLudd on Aug 12, 2007 9:26 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Don't you know its no longer considered fair to present what politicians said in the past? Don't you know they are no longer responsible for anything they have ever said and its just a "gotcha" if you try to hold them responsible? Don't you see what victims they all are of you vultures?????

Don't you see how we are all here to serve them... not them to serve us.

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What's new?
Posted by: FDPN on Aug 12, 2007 9:46 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Politicians (of every political allegiance) will say ANYTHING to manipulate the people.

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» RE: What's new? Posted by: Doubtom
How screwed are we?
Posted by: l_m_n on Aug 12, 2007 10:23 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I watched this yesterday and just about cried. To be validated that your government is pure evil was one part told-you-so and ten parts sheer terror.

Cheney must have sat back and laughed as the MSM and the average American believed the lies he spread about his reasons for going into Iraq. First the WMD line, then the spreading democracy line.. Fox et al. ate it up, with a good-sized helping of "Support the Troops". Then, he got to watch the liberals try to convince the average American of what was going on... of what he himself already knew! It took awhile before even calling Iraq a "quagmire" was acceptable on TV.

It must have been a Godlike experience. "Dance, my pretties, dance!"

And the balls on that man, to slander the libs in the process.

This clip proves that Cheney invaded Iraq for the exact purpose of destabilizing the region. I suppose the only question left: do you think Bush knew all this? Is he an evil, twisted man with an outer coating of stupid, or is he really as naive to foreign politics as my 2-year-old nephew?

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» RE: How screwed are we? Posted by: cwilsondrum
» RE: How screwed are we? Posted by: Lauren
wow, how completely shocking.
Posted by: digitalfrenzy on Aug 12, 2007 10:52 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The funny thing is that this clip has taken this long to be uncovered. It will also never be shown on mainstream news sources. Why? Well, it's because this country is more preoccupied with reality tv shows than their actual existence. I have absolutely no sympathy for the people in the US. Your lack of foresight, your lack of spine, and your total apathy towards your plight is now the bed you have to lay in. YOU caused this, YOU didn't do anything to change the situation. Suffer.

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The Party Line Changed, Nothing More
Posted by: BobbyGreyFriar on Aug 12, 2007 7:08 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You can find these sorts of radical reversals all the time in politics and though superficially they seem paradoxical, in fact they are prefectly explicable. Once one accepts that politicians represent the vested interest of a minority and that they are not sentimental at all about a decent life for the rest of the domestic or international population these paradoxes and contradictions majically resolve themselves. A politician's job is to defend the party line not to look at facts and draw from them what the majority would consider sane conclusions. After the first Gulf War the obvious question was why, if his regime so terrible, wasn't Saddam toppled then.* True, many of Cheney's arguments happen to correct, but that is irrelevant; in this case he had good arguments he could exploit so of course he used them, but if he hadn't had good arguments he would have made something up or resorted to sophisms (like he's doing now in defending the '03 invasion).

*Presumably Washington assumed that after the '91 invasion Saddam would go back to taking orders; alas, he did not.

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» RE: The Party Line Changed, Nothing More Posted by: SatanicJamboree
Cheney sanity or forgotten History?
Posted by: heecheeboy on Aug 13, 2007 7:57 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Cheney's remarks should be taken in the context in which they were obviously being delivered: he was Secretary of Defense under George Bush Sr. during the first Gulf war and he is clearly speaking, in past tense, about the decision made at that time in that administration.

The rationale given by him in this 1994 interview was widely spread throughout the MSM as George Bush I's reason for not invading Iraq, a decision both widely criticized and widely hailed by the MSM at the time. In that context it is not at all indicative of anything Cheney may or may not honestly believe, certainly not shocking or even something that might give one pause; though it is indicative of that period's talking points -- played then by all the players in Bush I as a "heroic" decision to not spread more chaos than the U.S. could contain at the time.

Remember too, that "containment" of "the Hitler" in the desert (a result of U.S. meddling in the first place) was the consensus strategy of Bush I and Clinton though there were plenty of detractors in the MSM who predictably rooted for full on invasion at the time. It was only three years later that PNAC came along and proposed Full Spectrum Dominance with Cheney darkly autographing that seeming "change" of policy.

In short, this is Cheney being Cheney, giving the days talking points. Context is everything.

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Boy, would I love to hear
Posted by: willymack on Aug 13, 2007 5:36 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The conversation that must have taken place between poppy bush & darth cheney!" Hey, Quasimodo; listen up. I'm going to shove the bumblewit down the throats of the suckers (our people). I can't use jeb as he'll be too busy rigging the Florida "vote". I'm gonna need somebody to babysit him after we steal the next two "elections". Who do you suggest?" The Evil One says:"Why sir; look no further. I'm just the one you need for the job. I've already got a good part of the military on my side, and Halliburton is just drooling over the prospect of easy pickings, and the kickbacks will be outstanding". "Good choice", says poppy, no downside to this one at all. Let's do it".

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Flip-Flopper! Flip-Flopper! Flip-Flopper!
Posted by: michigan2009 on Aug 15, 2007 4:59 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Cheney's a Flip-Flopper!
Cheney's a Flip-Flopper!
Cheney's a Flip-Flopper!

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