FLASHBACK: Cheney Once Warned Of ‘Quagmire’ From An Open-Ended Commitment In Iraq

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/12/cheney-quagmire/

FLASHBACK: Cheney Once Warned Of ‘Quagmire’ From An Open-Ended Commitment In Iraq

Today in a speech delivered at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Vice President Cheney assailed Iraq war critics for pursuing “an anti-war strategy that’s been called slow bleed.” Cheney added, “They’re not supporting the troops, they are undermining them.” Watch it at link:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attacked Cheney’s remarks, saying, “It is a disservice to our military personnel for President Bush and Vice President Cheney to continue to advocate for an open-ended commitment in Iraq, while brushing aside the advice of military leaders and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, all of whom argue that the war in Iraq cannot be resolved militarily but only through diplomatic, economic and political means.”

The true “slow bleed” strategy is leaving U.S. troops mired in the middle of an Iraqi civil war. There was a time when Cheney recognized that. On April 7, 1991, appearing on ABC’s This Week, Cheney said:

Well, just as it’s important, I think, for a president to know when to commit U.S. forces to combat, it’s also important to know when not to commit U.S. forces to combat. I think for us to get American military personnel involved in a civil war inside Iraq would literally be a quagmire. Once we got to Baghdad, what would we do? Who would we put in power? What kind of government would we have? Would it be a Sunni government, a Shi’a government, a Kurdish government? Would it be secular, along the lines of the Ba’ath Party? Would be fundamentalist Islamic? I do not think the United States wants to have U.S. military forces accept casualties and accept the responsibility of trying to govern Iraq. I think it makes no sense at all.

Transcript:

CHENEY: When members of Congress pursue an anti-war strategy that’s been called slow bleed, they’re not supporting the troops, they are undermining them. And when members of Congress speak not of victory, but of time limits — (applause) — when members speak not of victory but of time limits, deadlines or other arbitrary measures, they’re telling the enemy simply to watch the clock and wait us out.

[razors edge]

1. How about this?

Lets all agree to wave flags and send every spare nickel to the pentagon in support of Operation Iraqi Liberation.

We agree to post only support of glorious leader and his manly decidering for one month, while they slip the troops out of there.

That way the "Insurgents" aren't just waiting us out in an "Emboldened" state of mind. Hell they wouldn't even know we left that way.

Victory!!!