For all you skeptics who have denied that Dick Cheney is a prophet. . .

. . . read this, from the then-Secretary of Defense in February 1992:

I would guess if we had gone in there, I would still have forces in Baghdad today. We'd be running the country. We would not have been able to get everybody out and bring everybody home.

And the final point that I think needs to be made is this question of casualties. I don't think you could have done all of that without significant additional U.S. casualties, and while everybody was tremendously impressed with the low cost of the (1991) conflict, for the 146 Americans who were killed in action and for their families, it wasn't a cheap war. And the question in my mind is, how many additional American casualties is Saddam (Hussein) worth? And the answer is, not that damned many. So, I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the President made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.

Comments

Hube said…

Wow -- choice stuff, that. What's the source, Steve? I'd like to check it out and, use it!

May 7, 2008 at 7:16 PM

Steven H. Newton said…

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/192908_cheney29.html

May 7, 2008 at 11:08 PM

Steven H. Newton said…

Sorry Hube. Somehow I forgot to include the link in the post.

I'll try to remember to correct it up there later.

May 7, 2008 at 11:10 PM

Anonymous said…

Steve: That link is incomplete. Could you send to me via e-mail? Thanks.

May 8, 2008 at 8:43 AM

Hube said…

Never mind, Steve. I figured out how to get it. :-)

May 10, 2008 at 10:45 AM

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