Dick Cheney Quotes
While everybody was tremendously impressed with the low cost of the conflict, for the 146 Americans who were killed in action and for their families, it wasn't a cheap war. And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many
This statement was made in the first phase of the Iraq war where Cheney and President Bush thought the war was won. After that there were thousands of Americans killed in the war. Critics of the administration war policy threw this quotation up to him.
Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States (Republican), U. S. Congressman (Republican, WY), White House Chief of Staff, U. S. Secretary of Defense, Remarks to the Discovery Institute, August 14, 1992
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
His balanced judgment and concern for American Casualties changed during the Iraq War over a decade later where he insisted on taking steady American casualties even after Saddam had been deposed and American troops were in the middle of a sectarian civil war.
All deceased American troops who were killed in the Middle East were returned to the mortuary unit at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, In previous wars the press had access to the mortuary and showed pictures of the flag draped caskets returning. However in the Iraq War, the administration, trying to deemphasize the high American death toll of troops, made Dover off limits to the press and made all the processes secret. However, the exact number of casualties and their identities became known through other sources and the media ran photo of the deceased.
It is with this certainty that the Vice President led the effort to invade Iraq in a preemptory war. After the invasion it was discovered that Iraq did not have any nuclear weapons or any other WMDs. Further, Iraq had no WMD development program of any kind. The rationale for the Iraq War was nill.
This may have been the origin of the famous Stalin later quotation of very similar sentiment {616657}. No one is certain if Stalin had ever seen this work. Or he might have come upon it independently. The original source does not mention Massigli by name. However the description of the “Diplomat vom Quai d’Orsay” fits Massigli and his expertise so we attribute it to him. However, he was not the first to express this idea. The Anglican Bishop of London, Beilby Porteus, appears to have been the earliest—See {627489}.
Richard Bruce Cheney is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under George W. Bush. He has been cited as the most powerful vice president in American history. He is also one of the most unpopular American politicians, holding an approval rating of just 13% upon leaving office. Cheney has been the oldest living former U.S. vice president since 2021, following the death of Walter Mondale.
