Conservatives sure were smart about Iraq — in the early ’90s
It seems almost odd in retrospect, but when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, John McCain was not an enthusiastic supporter of a military confrontation. At the time, McCain said, “To start putting American troops into that kind of meat grinder I just don’t think is a viable option.” As the first Bush administration began formulating plans to intervene, McCain wanted to limit the response to an air campaign.
The president chose a different direction, and McCain quickly fell in line. But the anecdote is a reminder that the McCain we see today, filled with neocon ideas and bellicose rhetoric, used to be far more cautious about putting U.S. troops in harm’s way.
The DNC’s research department highlighted an even more striking example, noting a 1991 interview between McCain and Larry King.
MCCAIN: …I’m not sure that if we did go in on the ground we could tell a Shiite from a Sunni, even from a Kurd. And who is it that we’d be fighting and battling against on the streets of Baghdad? And, if we got into Baghdad, we would lose all of our military supremacy and we would take casualties.
KING: If they’d welcome this-
Sen. McCAIN: One more point - real quick. I want to get rid of Saddam Hussein. There’s a few other dictators I’d like to get rid of, too. And I hate to use the phrase “slippery slope,” but if we’ve got to get rid of this dictator, which ones do we take on next?
That John McCain sure used to be smart, didn’t he?
It reminds me of a speech Dick Cheney gave in 1991, in which he noted the intense sectarian rivalries that dominate Iraqi society and the likely inability to maintain stability in Baghdad. As for replacing Saddam with a democracy, Cheney asked his audience, “How much credibility is that government going to have if it’s set up by the United States military when it’s there?” He added:
“The notion that we ought to now go to Baghdad and somehow take control of the country strikes me as an extremely serious one in terms of what we’d have to do once we got there. You’d probably have to put some new government in place. It’s not clear what kind of government that would be, how long you’d have to stay. For the U.S. to get involved militarily in determining the outcome of the struggle over who’s going to govern in Iraq strikes me as a classic definition of a quagmire.”
Then, in 1994, Cheney reiterated his position.
“Once you got to Iraq and took it over, and 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 in Iraq, you can easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off. How many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? And our judgment was — not very many and I think we got it right.”
Yep, Dick Cheney and John McCain both realized what they were getting into in Iraq, but rejected their own accurate thinking a decade later.
I suppose it’s inevitable that McCain and his campaign will respond to this the same way Cheney backers did — by arguing that “9/11 changed everything.” But don’t buy it. The old McCain asked all the right questions and made all right assumptions about sectarian divisions in Iraq, and the inherent challenges in even knowing who we’d be fighting.
The conditions in Iraq didn’t change at all, only McCain’s willingness to abandon the judgment that was right a decade before it was wrong.
Such pre-9/11 thinking, I’m sure they’ll say…
Acute kool-aid poisoning is one explanation.
Hey we were already in the neighborhood.
This is why I am convinced that Cheney and McCain were replaced by evil ( or more evil) robot duplicates.
On the other hand, there are those in the oil industry who think GWB is a very successful president. If you have a minute, watch this British comedy clip that uses real facts about Iraq to make a point about the real value of the Iraq War.
GOP meme: “9/11 changed everything.”
See how easy it is to create a catchphrase that squashes discussion?
I can explain the change of heart in two words: Peak Oil. The world runs on oil, and we’re addicted to it. Addicts do really stupid, self-destructive things to get their fixes. Cheney probably bought the BS from Chalabi and AIPAC and all the other goons pushing this fiasco, because he wanted all that yummy yummy oil.
So what’s the solution? Green Goo.
Seriously.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2007-07/greenest-green-fuel
When I first put up my chart showing “U.S. Miltary Deaths in Bush’s Iraq Quagmire”, I routinely received hate email, most of it highly emotional and some of it quite threatening.. Ever since I added this YouTube link to Cheney’s 1994 interview, I haven’t received a single bit of hate mail. A complete 180. Talk about unthinking sheep.
mrspanstreppon makes the point that everyone slides around (in a slippery pool of oil revenues). This administration (aka evil empire) is either (1) given a pass on the notion that things are improving and it was the right thing to do all along (2) are incompetent (3) used to be competent, but got stoopid in recent years, but rarely is it noted that (4) they have done exactly what they intended to do and it is working (for them). And nowhere is it ever explained just how well this is working for who and how, but you gotta know Cheney, for one, is hydrated fully on oil. It would be interesting to see exactly where the billions of dollars are going that pay for this useless endeavor, and what money is being siphoned from Iraq itself. It probably would stagger the mind of us commoners if we really knew.
Both the oil industry and the United States would have been better off if our government had just given 10% of what we’re spending on the war to the oil companies as a direct handout and spent the rest on programs which actually benefit the American people.
Racer X (7): Cheney probably bought the BS from Chalabi.
And let’s not forget that McCain was even more chummy with Chalabi.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14834.html
Rememeber how those on the left who were opposed to the Gulf War at the onset, later criticized Geoerge Herbert Bush for not going into Iraq and removing Saddam from power. Hmmm? ItAs far as McCain is concerned, his main argument is that since we have invaded Iraq already we can’t just pull out of there and let Iran and A l Qaeda take over, as many of the left-wing-fringe would prefer. But it’s important to take note, Liberal rely on hindsight to formulate their opinions. Brilliant! If you examine Barack Obama’s stance on Iraq, you’ll find he shifted his views according to hindsight too. Click here to read about that. Or if that doesn’t work, just copy the following link and paste. Happy surfing! http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/03/19/obamas-opposition-to-iraq-war-once-firm-sometimes-has-wavered/
Danp, thanks for the link. Very interesting, and this should scare the living shit out of anyone with a brain:
How fucked in the head do you have to be to respect “enormously” the idiots who have literally destroyed the conventional armed forces of the United States of America, and who advocate attacking Iran and completely destroying what’s left of it?
McCain didn’t know if he’s a neoconservative or not. Maybe someone should ask him again?
link to the quote above (for the google-impaired)
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=23c3a0ff-9d55-4d28-a94e-0b0e09e26505
McCain was alright until he sold his soul to George W. Bush.
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Rememeber how those on the left who were opposed to the Gulf War at the onset, later criticized Geoerge Herbert Bush for not going into Iraq and removing Saddam from power. Hmmm?
Uh, no.
Care to provide some links to prove your idiotic assertion? Hmmmm?
Care to provide some links to prove your idiotic assertion? Hmmmm?
I can’t find the exact quote, but I’m pretty sure this is the right guy.
I hope that helped!
McCain just does not want to fess up to playing Dumb about facts about Iraq. Joe Conason just laid a lot of it out in his column. The link is Here.
er, sorry. The original quote was “I fimrly opposed the initial invasion of Iraq and …” Must have been a formatting error when I copied it from the original.
Thanks L. Boom. Straw Man writes for The Nation, right?
Yeah. He writes for the The Nation, but his work is syndicated and appears in special sections of many popular conservative magazines. Very quotable guy.
Conservatives sure were smart about Iraq — in the early ’90s “Liberals” were never smart about Iraq — anytime.
Thanks SteveIL! What’s the matter, LGF off line today?
McCain also was terribly unpatriotic in criticizing our mission in Somalia at the time.
A true lust for war ages like a fine wine.
Maybe Cheney should chair a commission to determine who McCain’s vice presidential running-mate should be?