The video of Dick Cheney from 1994 discussing why invading Iraq during Desert Storm would have been a bad idea recently got picked up and has been circulating. It’s not news to anyone who read Al Franken’s latest, The Truth (with jokes), but regardless you get to see an actually quite reasonable Cheney explaining why an invasion of Iraq was a terrible idea. CNN got hold of it, as you can see here.
Now I’m sure there’s a lot to take from this video, but for my money it’s the last bit which I will transcribe here. After mentioning that Cheney’s office didn’t return any calls on the issue, the host closes with:
ABBI TATTON: But in February of this year, Vice President Cheney was asked in an interview with ABC News about similar comments he made in 1991. The vice president’s response, “Look what’s happened since then. We had 9/11.“
When I heard that, I just laughed. In 2007, the veep is still pushing the line that Iraq and 9/11 were somehow linked. Someone needs to grab Cheney by the shoulders, shake him like hell, and say “9/11 and Iraq were not connected, get it through your thick skull!” They’re unrelated to the point that we could claim 9/11 had something to do with the Berlin Wall falling or that it was a response to the military action in Kosovo.
It’s really like he thinks we’re all too stupid to pick up on it. Like he can just say “9/11″ and we’ll all hush up and stop asking questions.
