Who said it, or, puttin' the quag in quagmire..
Back in 1991 when the first Bush administration was being criticized in some quarters for not finishing off Saddam when they had the chance, a sage man made the following statement:
Was it Bill Clinton running for President? Gary Hart? Editors of the New Republic? Editorial staff of the NY Times? Colin Powell? Rolling Stone Magazine?
Give up???
It was...Dick Cheney, and for possibly the last time in his life, he was RIGHT. Shoulda stopped while he was ahead, doncha think?
..And once we'd done that and we'd gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and his government, then we'd have had to put another government in its place. What kind of government? Should it be a Sunni government or Shi'i government or a Kurdish government or Ba'athist regime? Or maybe we want to bring in some of the Islamic fundamentalists? How long would we have had to stay in Baghdad to keep that government in place? What would happen to the government once U.S. forces withdrew? How many casualties should the United States accept in that effort to try to create clarity and stability in a situation that is inherently unstable? I think it is vitally important for a President to know when to use military force. I think it is also very important for him to know when not to commit U.S. military force. And it's my view that the President got it right both times, that it would have been a mistake for us to get bogged down in the quagmire inside Iraq.
Was it Bill Clinton running for President? Gary Hart? Editors of the New Republic? Editorial staff of the NY Times? Colin Powell? Rolling Stone Magazine?
Give up???
It was...Dick Cheney, and for possibly the last time in his life, he was RIGHT. Shoulda stopped while he was ahead, doncha think?
