Say Anything Blog

Cheney once felt that Saddam Hussein wasn't worth going after.

WASHINGTON -- In an assessment that differs sharply with his view today, Dick Cheney more than a decade ago defended the decision to leave Saddam Hussein in power after the first Gulf War, telling a Seattle audience that capturing Saddam wouldn't be worth additional U.S. casualties or the risk of getting "bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq."

Cheney, who was secretary of defense at the time, made the observations answering audience questions after a speech to the Discovery Institute in August 1992, nearly 18 months after U.S. forces routed the Iraqi army and liberated Kuwait.

President George H.W. Bush was criticized for pulling out before U.S. forces could storm Baghdad, allowing Saddam to remain in power and eventually setting the stage for the invasion of Iraq ordered by his son, President George W. Bush, in March 2003.

I'm sure there will be a lot of gloating from Democrats over this apparent flip-flop from Cheney. I'd point out, however, that Cheney moving from one side of an issue to the other over the course of 12 years is much different than John Kerry's multiple stances on the war in Iraq just during this campaign season.

I'm also not entirely convinced that Cheney and Bush Sr. didn't want to go after Saddam Hussein. Remember that 1992 was an election year. The military operations in the middle east were becoming unpopular with voters and Bush Sr. was locked in a struggle with Bill Clinton to get himself re-elected. What Cheney was saying at that point may have had more to do with campaign politics than actual foreign policy.