Cheney's Facts And Fiction

Washington, D.C. In recent days, Vice President Cheney, following the President's lead, accused the administration's critics of revising and rewriting the history of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Regrettably, however, he failed to detail specifically what facts the opponents of the war may have distorted. Next to secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, the vice president is easily the most experienced politician and ought to be the most reliable among the President's advisers. For twelve years, he held Wyoming's only seat in the House of Representatives, for one year the position of Republican House minority whip. For two years, Cheney served as President Ford's White House chief of staff and for four years as secretary of defense under the first PresidentBush, before he became chairman and chief executive officer of Halliburton, the leading logistics contractor for the Pentagon.

Based on his authoritative knowledge of the 1991 Gulf War, Cheney told the British Broadcasting Company in 1992: “If we'd gone to Baghdad and got rid of Saddam Hussein--assuming we could have found him--we'd have had to put a lot of forces in and run him to ground some place. He would not have been easy to capture. Then you've got to put a new government in his place, and then you're faced with the question of what kind of government are you going to establish in Iraq. Is it going to be a Kurdish government, or a Shia government, or a Sunni government? How many forces are you going to have to leave there to keep it propped up, how many casualties are you going to take through the course of the operation?”

Ten years later, oblivious of his warnings against an occupation of Iraq, Mr. Cheney repeatedly advocated the removal of the Iraqi dictator and repeatedly gave reasons for it that he found compelling.

On August 26, 2002, he told the Veterans of Foreign Wars: “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.”

Days before th invasion, on March 16, 2003, when he spoke about Saddam Hussein on NBC's “Meet the Press,” Cheney declared: “We know he's out trying once again to produce nuclear weapons, and we know that he has a long-standing relationship with various terrorist groups, including the Al-Qaeda organization.” Although nobody ever found evidence of links between Saddam and Al Qaeda, on September 14, 2003, Cheney still spoke of “a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s.”

On September 8, 2003, the United Nations weapons inspectors had reported that Iraq was not capable of pursuing a nuclear weapons program after 1991 and that there was no sign of active weaponization activities in Iraq. Cheney nevertheless remained adamant in defending the administration's call for war. On October 3, 2003, he still insisted: “If we had had that information and ignored it, if we'd been told, as we were, by the intelligence community that he was capable of producing nuclear weapons within a year, if he could acquire fissile material and we would have ignored it, ... we would have been derelict in our duties and responsibilities.”

When British Prime Minister Blair bought the unlikely story of yellow cake purchases by Hussein in Niger's French-controlled uranium mines, the Central Intelligence Agency repeatedly warned Cheney that it was probably misinformation. Yet, he nevertheless spread this fabrication as proven fact.

When he took the lead in formulating the administration's policy on the proper treatment of detainees, Chaney recommended and defended torturing “as appropriate and as consistent with military necessity.”

When an increasing number of the vice president's dubious statements were questioned by a growing number of Republicans, Democrats, and media outlets, the Vice President bristled with anger: “The President and I,” he warned, ”cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone, but we're not going to let them rewrite history.”

This statement again shows Mr. Cheney's regrettable tendency to make claims that he cannot prove because they have no basis in fact. Could it be that he now wants to bury the inconvenient aspects of his leading role in the hype that led to the President's costly mistakes in Iraq?

Wolf D. Fuhrig	Home	11-27-05
Cheney's Facts And Fiction
*Washington, D.C.* In recent days, Vice President Cheney, following the President's lead, accused the administration's critics of revising and rewriting the history of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Regrettably, however, he failed to detail specifically what facts the opponents of the war may have distorted. Next to secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld, the vice president is easily the most experienced politician and ought to be the most reliable among the President's advisers. For twelve years, he held Wyoming's only seat in the House of Representatives, for one year the position of Republican House minority whip. For two years, Cheney served as President Ford's White House chief of staff and for four years as secretary of defense under the first PresidentBush, before he became chairman and chief executive officer of Halliburton, the leading logistics contractor for the Pentagon. Based on his authoritative knowledge of the 1991 Gulf War, Cheney told the British Broadcasting Company in 1992: “If we'd gone to Baghdad and got rid of Saddam Hussein--assuming we could have found him--we'd have had to put a lot of forces in and run him to ground some place. He would not have been easy to capture. Then you've got to put a new government in his place, and then you're faced with the question of what kind of government are you going to establish in Iraq. Is it going to be a Kurdish government, or a Shia government, or a Sunni government? How many forces are you going to have to leave there to keep it propped up, how many casualties are you going to take through the course of the operation?” Ten years later, oblivious of his warnings against an occupation of Iraq, Mr. Cheney repeatedly advocated the removal of the Iraqi dictator and repeatedly gave reasons for it that he found compelling. On August 26, 2002, he told the Veterans of Foreign Wars: “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.” Days before th invasion, on March 16, 2003, when he spoke about Saddam Hussein on NBC's “Meet the Press,” Cheney declared: “We know he's out trying once again to produce nuclear weapons, and we know that he has a long-standing relationship with various terrorist groups, including the Al-Qaeda organization.” Although nobody ever found evidence of links between Saddam and Al Qaeda, on September 14, 2003, Cheney still spoke of “a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s.” On September 8, 2003, the United Nations weapons inspectors had reported that Iraq was not capable of pursuing a nuclear weapons program after 1991 and that there was no sign of active weaponization activities in Iraq. Cheney nevertheless remained adamant in defending the administration's call for war. On October 3, 2003, he still insisted: “If we had had that information and ignored it, if we'd been told, as we were, by the intelligence community that he was capable of producing nuclear weapons within a year, if he could acquire fissile material and we would have ignored it, ... we would have been derelict in our duties and responsibilities.” When British Prime Minister Blair bought the unlikely story of yellow cake purchases by Hussein in Niger's French-controlled uranium mines, the Central Intelligence Agency repeatedly warned Cheney that it was probably misinformation. Yet, he nevertheless spread this fabrication as proven fact. When he took the lead in formulating the administration's policy on the proper treatment of detainees, Chaney recommended and defended torturing “as appropriate and as consistent with military necessity.” When an increasing number of the vice president's dubious statements were questioned by a growing number of Republicans, Democrats, and media outlets, the Vice President bristled with anger: “The President and I,” he warned, ”cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone, but we're not going to let them rewrite history.” This statement again shows Mr. Cheney's regrettable tendency to make claims that he cannot prove because they have no basis in fact. Could it be that he now wants to bury the inconvenient aspects of his leading role in the hype that led to the President's costly mistakes in Iraq?

Wolf D. Fuhrig

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11-27-05

Cheney's Facts And Fiction