Surely this is a misquote… right? He can’t possibly have said this (my emphasis):
Cheney said he now recognizes that the insurgency in Iraq was not “in its last throes,” as he said in May 2005. “I think there is no question but that we did not anticipate an insurgency that would last this long,” the vice president said.
“It’s still difficult. Obviously, major, major work to do is ahead of us. But the fact is, the world is better off today with Saddam Hussein out of power. Think where we’d be if he was still there,” Cheney said.
Okay… I’ll bite. Let’s just go down that road a ways for a minute, because while I don’t know where we would be, I can come up with any number of places we wouldn’t.
There are over 2800 American troops — and others beyond this from other countries — who would not be in a grave as a result of this war.
I’ve read that there are over 40,000 Iraqis dead from this war, but unfortunately, there are only estimates. However many it is, though, they wouldn’t be dead as a result of our actions.
Where else would we not be… let’s see…. We would not be trapped in an Iraqi quagmire of our own making, unable to leave, unable to help them. We might very well be trapped elsewhere, but it wouldn’t be Iraq.
We would not be doubting every report out of this administration, particularly regarding Iran, as a result of the lethal misinformation that led to Iraq.
And finally, our country would not be pulling itself apart internally — raging at one another with accusations and hostility — if Saddam were still there. We would not be spewing bile and venom across the partisan divide that widened into an uncrossable chasm because of Iraq.
By all means, Mr. Cheney, let’s imagine where we’d all be if Saddam were still there. He was an evil, vicious man, but tell me… have the last three years really improved the world, or even the United States?
No, there’s no telling where we would be had we not gone into Iraq, but the one place we would not be is where we are right now.
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