Dick Cheney Is A Flip Flopper

Q: Do you think the U.S., or U.N. forces, should have moved into Baghdad?

A: No.

Q: Why not?

A: Because if we'd gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us. There would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq.

Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off: part of it, the Syrians would like to have to the west, part of it -- eastern Iraq -- the Iranians would like to claim, they fought over it for eight years. In the north you've got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey.

It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq.

The other thing was casualties. Everyone was impressed with the fact we were able to do our job with as few casualties as we had. But for the 146 Americans killed in action, and for their families -- it wasn't a cheap war. And the question for the president, in terms of whether or not we went on to Baghdad, took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein, was how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth?

Our judgment was, not very many, and I think we got it right.

Now... imagine Cheney saying the following...

"However, if there was an attack against the United States, it would not be difficult to convince the American people that an invasion of Iraq is valid. If there was an attack against the United States, it would be easier to convince other countries that an invasion of Iraq is valid, and that way, we wouldn't be so "alone."

I wonder if between 1994, and 2001 did Cheney and others come to the conclusion that a "catastrophic and catalyzing event like a new Pearl Harbor" might make the invasion of Iraq and elsewhere more justified?

Hmmmm....

The UN was not welcome

The UN was not welcome before, they were too democratic, they give people the idea that they can participate in decision-making.

Who do you think killed Sergio de Mello and blew up the UN building?