The one thing you can say about this Cheney family -- they've got their lies and they're sticking to them -- no matter what. After feeling the need to give the Bush administration some glowing praise for torture, the Patriot Act and Guantanamo Bay, Bill O'Reilly actually challenged the assertion that we were greeted as liberators in Iraq made by Dick Cheney years ago on Meet the Press. Naturally, his daughter Liz, disagreed.
O'Reilly pointed to the falling of the statue of Saddam Hussein and that there was only a very small group of people there as evidence that we were not greeted as liberators. What Billo failed to point out to her during this softball interview, is that event was staged by our military as our own Silent Patriot reminded us of back on the 4th anniversary of that event.
As to Cheney still repeating the "greeted as liberators" line, John Amato wrote about this back in 2007 when John McCain was carrying water for the Bush administration, repeating that already tired and debunked line back then as well:
John McCain told Tim Russert that America was greeted as liberators when we got to Iraq. What is he talking about. When were we ever greeted as liberators? It wasn't like ten months of peace and tranquility. The looting began almost immediately. He also says that the war was easy. Easy for who?
One thing we can count on is that as long as these neocons and supporters of the Iraq invasion are still alive, they're going to do their best to continue to revise the history books in their favor.
Full transcript below the fold.
O'REILLY: Ok. The second one is the Iraq war. You know that I'm a supporter or I was a supporter.
CHENEY: I actually didn't know that.
O'REILLY: Well, it's true. I mean I'm on the record of supporting the enhanced interrogations, the Patriot Act, Guantanamo Bay and, you know, consistently across the line. But there's a historical record and the historical record is that Americans were not aware of the big threat that al Qaeda was posing.
CHENEY: The records actually on al Qaeda that before 9/11, we treated it like a law enforcement problem.
O'REILLY: Yes. And Clinton did and Bush did.
CHENEY: And I think that is the key difference is that the president and the vice president, Bush and Cheney understood after 9/11, this is war. And we're at war. We have to do whatever it takes to keep the nation safe.
O'REILLY: All right. Three days before the Iraq war was launched, here's what Vice President Cheney said on "Meet the Press".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think that things have gotten so bad inside Iraq from the standpoint of the Iraqi people. My belief is we will in fact be greeted as liberators.
O'REILLY: Ok. Obviously, that didn't happen. And I would love to know --
CHENEY: It actually did happen. We were greeted as liberators and then we saw a massive, bloody, dangerous insurgency began. And it wasn't frankly until we were able in 2006 with the surge to adopt a counter- insurgency strategy that we were able to frankly turn things around.
O'REILLY: Ok. But here's where you're wrong. We weren't greeted as liberators. We were greeted in a way that was tentative.
CHENEY: It's not true.
O'REILLY: Yes it is.
CHENEY: No, it's not true.
O'REILLY: You saw the statue came down and how many people were out there? Do you know how many people were out there when the statue of Saddam Hussein came down? Do you know how many?
CHENEY: Do you know how many Bill?
O'REILLY: Yes, I do. A couple of hundred, not thousands; Baghdad is a city of millions. A couple of hundred.
CHENEY: Bill --
O'REILLY: And then right after the statue came down, the armories were looted and the terrorists went in and they took all of Saddam Hussein's arms, ok?
CHENEY: Look, I know how much --
O'REILLY: Because our government wasn't accepting that.
CHENEY: I know how much you care about no spin.
O'REILLY: Right.
CHENEY: And I think it's really important here. Saddam was an incredibly repressive dictator --
O'REILLY: No doubt.
CHENEY: The Iraqi people were glad to see him go. Saddam had in place -- there were elements from his regime that stayed in place. There were elements from al Qaeda, elements from Iran who were there who were ready, who launched a very bloody insurgency.
O'REILLY: Correct. And it was not anticipated by us. That insurgency --
(CROSSTALK)
CHENEY: I think it was not anticipated by everyone. I think that's true.
O'REILLY: It was not anticipated.
CHENEY: But it's -- when we removed Saddam Hussein, we made sure that there wasn't going to be somebody in place who we knew had ties to terror, who we knew, knew how to make weapons of mass destruction, who we knew had used them before, who we knew was supporting terrorists. We also, by the way, as soon as Saddam was gone got a phone call from Moammar Gadhafi who didn't want to be next, who gave up his nuclear weapons.
O'REILLY: There were good things that happened. No doubt.
CHENEY: I think that the notion that we now have in the heart of the Middle East, a democracy that is not supporting terrorists. It's not perfect. But it is a huge accomplishment of the Bush Administration that we liberated all those people and the people in Afghanistan.
And I think it's just flat wrong for you to call it that.
O'REILLY: Ok. And I disagree in the sense that it could have been done in a different way. I would have -- the same result.
CHENEY: Which way? Would you have gone and talked to Saddam and said, "Hey, you ought to --
O'REILLY: No, I would have gone the Bush the Elder, way, the president's father and I would have strangled them with a blockade. I would have no-fly zoned it as they would have done and then when the drones were developed --
CHENEY: Bill, you have to look at the reports that were done by the Iraq survey group, for example. It was clear when we come came into office in 2000 that Saddam was a threat. He had between the time of the first Bush Administration and this Bush Administration completely ignored 16 U.N. Security Council resolutions --
O'REILLY: There's no doubt about it.
CHENEY: -- that the sanctions regime was crumbling. So it's just not accurate to say he was in a box. We could have strangled him.
And after 9/11, we couldn't run the risk -- that somebody like Saddam was going to share technology about WMD.
O'REILLY: I don't expect you and your father to agree with me, ok? But the blood and treasure of the United States spent in Iraq has now come back into our country in a very negative way.
CHENEY: We need more time and I feel confident that I could convince you of the rightness of my position.
O'REILLY: I thank you for coming in Miss Cheney. We appreciate it.
CHENEY: Thank you. Good to be here.
