Meatstick Video: Dick Cheney On Why Invading Iraq Would Be A Quaqmire

A big thanks to Seán for bringing this to my attention. This video is a slam dunk for any blogger who is having writer's block.



I'm quite sure Dick Cheney will defend this video by saying that 9/11 changed everything. Even if 9/11 was a valid excuse for invading Iraq, which it most certainly is not, that does not explain why Dick Cheney thought it would be wise to use minimum military force just 9 years after this video was shot. What happened in those 9 years from the time he gave this interview to the day we crossed the berm into Iraq? He obviously knew that invading Iraq would be extremely difficult back in 1994.

In 1999 the Army conducted a training war game called "Desert Crossing" which was set up to go over all the possibilities involved with invading Iraq. Retired marine General Anthony Zinni recommended a force of 400,000 soldiers for an invasion saying, "We were concerned about the ability to get in there right away, to flood the towns and villages. We knew the initial problem would be security."

On February 25, 2003 General Shinseki warned the President and Congress that the U.S. was not preparing correctly for the invasion because they weren't considering enough troops.

Carl Levin asked for Shinseki's opinion on how many troops would be needed and he answered, “Something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably a figure that would be required...We’re talking about a post-hostilities control over a piece of geography that’s fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems,” said Shinseki."

This is almost exactly what Cheney said back in 1994.

Instead of listening to General Shinseki, General Zinni, and himself back in 1994...Cheney chose to listen to Rumsfeld and a Mr. Hyde version of himself in 2003. Three days before the invasion of Iraq Cheney declared, "Things have gotten so bad inside Iraq ... we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators."

They decided to invade with 130,000 troops, all hell broke loose after some initial success, and here we are 4 years later still playing whack a mole.

You know that bumper sticker that says, "If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention"
Man, is that ever true.