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RUSSERT: Do you regret not taking Saddam out nine years ago?
CHENEY: I don't, Tim. It was--and it's been talked about since then. But the fact of the matter is the only way you could have done that would be to go to Baghdad and occupy Iraq. If we had done that, the U.S. would have been all alone. We would not have had the support of the coalition, especially of the Arab nations that fought alongside us in Kuwait. None of them ever set foot inside Iraq.
In conversations I had with leaders in the region afterwards, they all supported the decision that was made not to go to Baghdad. They were concerned that we not get into a position where we shifted instead of being the leader of an international coalition to roll back Iraqi aggression to one in which we were an imperialist power willy-nilly moving in to capitals in that part of the world, taking down governments.
So I think we got it right. So I suppose it's one of those things that will be debated for some time. But I thought the decision was sound at the time, and I do today.
Too bad Cheney went bloodthirstingly stupid on us and dragged Chimpy McDumbfutz along with him.
Everything that Cheney cited as justifications for not going into Iraq: a messy occupation, a quagmire, being seen as imperialists, being seen as occupiers, has come to pass.
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