In His Own Words

I realize that many of you have seen this, either over at Lex's or Red's. But last night it was forwarded to me again by 2 other people and I thought, really, this needs to be seen by everyone. So here it is:



The video apparently came from an interview with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. You do well to remember that Dick Cheney served as Bush 41's Secretary of Defense from '89-'03. In other words, he was to 41 what Rumsfeld was to 43. That's right. One of the key guys is deciding to take our soldiers to Kuwait and to NOT invade Iraq. The fact that he says exactly what my cadre of commie-pinko unpatriotic liberal goldarn hippies have been saying is, well, amusing. Except, you know, for all the people who have died so far. He actually used the "q" word.

So the question is: did Cheney say these things in '94 because he truly understood the conditions in Iraq and wisely advised 41 to not invade Iraq lest it cause more trouble than it was worth? Because obviously, if he really meant it, one would be tempted to inquire why, all conditions being equal 9 years later, he all of a sudden thought that somehow it would work now. Or could it be that he was saying all of these very sensible things because in 1994 President Clinton was in office and the old guard was taking heat for not having "finished the job" in Iraq. Which would make this video nothing more than another classic example of Cheney saying whatever he needs to say to cover his arse.

Either way, he obviously got the analysis right. Prophetically right, it would seem. Did I hear someone mutter "war criminal" just now? Oh. That was me.