Dick Cheney Quotes (42 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Dick Cheney: 42 quotes 3 likes

Famous Dick Cheney Quotes

“Because if we had gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us. It would have been a U. S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq. Once you got to Iraq and took it over and took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world. And if you take down the central government in Iraq, you could easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off. Part of it the Syrians would like to have, the west. Part of eastern Iraq the Iranians would like to claim. Fought over for eight years. In the north, you've got the Kurds. And if the Kurds spin loose and join with Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey. It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq. The other thing is casualties. Everyone was impressed with the fact that we were able to do our job with as few casualties as we had, but for the 146 Americans killed in action and for the families it wasn't a cheap war. And the question for the president in terms of whether or not we went on to Baghdad and took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein was, how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? And our judgment was not very many, and I think we got it right.”

Dick Cheney

Cheney, on not pushing on to Baghdad during the first Gulf War; C-SPAN 4-15-94 Interview on CNN http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0708/13/sitroom.03.html
1990s

“And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many. So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq…. Once we had rounded him up and gotten rid of his government, then the question is what do you put in its place? You know, you then have accepted the responsibility for governing Iraq.”

Dick Cheney

August 1992, at the Discovery Institute in Seattle http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/192908_cheney29.html http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/192828_joel29.html
1990s

“If fine speech-making, appeals to reason, or pleas for compassion had the power to move them, the terrorists would long ago have abandoned the field.”

Dick Cheney

Speech at the American Enterprise Institute http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/05/21/cheney_obama_keeping_america_safe_96615.html (21 May, 2009)
2000s, 2009

“I think that the proposition of going to Baghdad is also fallacious. I think if we we're going to remove Saddam Hussein we would have had to go all the way to Baghdad, we would have to commit a lot of force because I do not believe he would wait in the Presidential Palace for us to arrive. I think we'd have had to hunt him down. And once we'd done that and we'd gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and his government, then we'd have had to put another government in its place. What kind of government? Should it be a Sunni government or Shi'i government or a Kurdish government or Ba'athist regime? Or maybe we want to bring in some of the Islamic fundamentalists? How long would we have had to stay in Baghdad to keep that government in place? What would happen to the government once U. S. forces withdrew? How many casualties should the United States accept in that effort to try to create clarity and stability in a situation that is inherently unstable? I think it is vitally important for a President to know when to use military force. I think it is also very important for him to know when not to commit U. S. military force. And it's my view that the President got it right both times, that it would have been a mistake for us to get bogged down in the quagmire inside Iraq.”

Dick Cheney

At the Washington Institute's Soref Symposium, April 29, 1991 http://web.archive.org/web/20041130090045/http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/pubs/soref/cheney.htm
1990s

“We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will.”

Dick Cheney

Interview on NBC http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/11/07/BL2005110700793.html (September 16, 2001)
2000s, 2001

“America has shown we are serious about removing the threat of weapons of mass destruction."…"We now know that Saddam Hussein had the capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction…. We know he had the necessary infrastructure because we found the labs and the dual-use facilities that could be used for these chemical and biological agents. We know that he was developing the delivery systems — ballistic missiles — that had been prohibited by the United Nations.”

Dick Cheney

Speech at a Fundraising dinner in New Mexico http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-02-16-cheney-new-mexico_x.htm, (February 16, 2004)
2000s, 2004

Dick Cheney Quotes about thinking

“The suggestion that somehow, because this was a close election, we should fundamentally change our beliefs I just think is silly.”

Dick Cheney

CBS News program Face the Nation http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/18/us/43rd-president-vice-president-elect-cheney-says-bush-administration-will-move.html (December 2000)
2000s

“I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time… The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.”

Dick Cheney

Larry King Live. interview http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/30/cheney.iraq/ (June 20, 2005)
2000s, 2005

“Because if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States, and that we'll fall back into the pre-9/11 mind set if you will, that in fact these terrorist attacks are just criminal acts, and that we're not really at war. I think that would be a terrible mistake for us.”

Dick Cheney

Speaking about the choice Americans would soon make in the presidential election at a Des Moines, Iowa campaign appearance on September 7, 2004 whitehouse.archives.gov http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/09/20040907-8.html.
2000s, 2004

“I think this whole notion that somehow we can just say no more Muslims, just ban a whole religion, goes against everything we stand for and believe in. I wouldn't support a ban on all Muslims coming into this country.”

Dick Cheney

On the The Hugh Hewitt Show http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dick-cheney-more-conservatives-slam-trumps-proposal-to-keep-muslims-out-of-u-s/ (7 December 2015).
2010s, 2015

“[In response to "Do you think the American people are prepared for a long, costly, and bloody battle with significant American casualties?"] "Well, I don’t think it’s likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators. I’ve talked with a lot of Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the White House…. The read we get on the people of Iraq is there is no question but what they want to get rid of Saddam Hussein and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that."”

Dick Cheney

2000s, 2003

“I think what we did in Iraq was the right thing to do. I still believe that.”

Dick Cheney

At the Ringling College Library Association Town Hall Lecture Series in Sarasota https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/articles/2017/1/23/dick-cheney-sarasota (January 2017)
2010s, 2017

Dick Cheney Quotes

“My belief is, we will, in fact be greeted as liberators.”

Dick Cheney

Meet The Press with Tim Russert. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/ (March 16, 2003)
2000s, 2003

“[F]ascinating… significant movement… [P]art of the American tradition… There's something positive… when we can simultaneously swear in a new president and at the same time have a democratic process of people expressing their views. It's their right and we shouldn’t be surprised by it, or annoyed by it.”

Dick Cheney

At the Ringling College Library Association Town Hall Lecture Series in Sarasota https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/articles/2017/1/23/dick-cheney-sarasota (January 2017)
2010s, 2017

People , Art , Time

“If we’re successful in Iraq, if we can stand up a good representative government in Iraq, that secures the region so that it never again becomes a threat to its neighbors or to the United States, so it’s not pursuing weapons of mass destruction, so that it’s not a safe haven for terrorists, now we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11.”

Dick Cheney

Meet The Press with Tim Russert. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/ (September. 14, 2003)
2000s, 2003

Success , Heart

“We haven't really had the time yet to pore through all those records in Baghdad. We'll find ample evidence confirming the link, that is the connection if you will between al Qaida and the Iraqi intelligence services. They have worked together on a number of occasions.”

Dick Cheney

Interview with Rocky Mountain News, January 2004 http://web.archive.org/web/20040213072434/http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/politics/article/0,1299,DRMN_35_2565269,00.html
2000s, 2004

Intelligence , Time

“[W]atching a coordinated, devastating attack on our country from an underground bunker at the White House can affect how you view your responsibilities.”

Dick Cheney

National Secruity Speech, American Enterprise Institute http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124267920788831733.html (21 May 2009)
2000s, 2009

Housing , Country

“Hugh Hewitt: Is he naïve, Mr. Vice President? Or does he have a far-reaching vision that only he entertains of a realigned Middle East that somehow it all works out in the end?”

Dick Cheney

2010s, 2015

“Let us rid ourselves of the fiction that low oil prices are somehow good for the United States.”

Dick Cheney

Remarks after introducing a legislation to create a new import tax that would have caused the price of oil to soar by billions of dollars per year http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E3D91F39F935A35757C0A9629C8B63 October 1986
1980s

“NATO's crucial. NATO's maybe the best, or most successful, alliance in history… To suggest that it’s obsolete is not correct. It’s not obsolete. A lot of our NATO allies sent troops to serve alongside ours in Afghanistan after 9/11 and a lot of European soldiers were killed supporting what essentially was our response to an attack upon the United States.”

Dick Cheney

At the Ringling College Library Association Town Hall Lecture Series in Sarasota https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/articles/2017/1/23/dick-cheney-sarasota (January 2017)
2010s, 2017

History , Support , Success

“The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people. I mean, these are terrorists for the most part.”

Dick Cheney

Interview talking about the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay on Fox News http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159469,00.html (13 June 2005)
2000s, 2005

People , Understanding , Parting

“Principle is okay up to a certain point, but principle doesn't do any good if you lose.”

Dick Cheney

Remarks during the 1976 US Presidential http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1502532,00.html
1970s

“What we did in Iraq was exactly the right thing to do. If I had it to recommend all over again, I would recommend exactly the same course of action.”

Dick Cheney

Vice Presidential Debate October 5, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3718956.stm http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6187803/
2000s, 2004

“You know, Paul, Reagan proved that deficits don't matter. We won the mid-term elections, this is our due.”

Dick Cheney

Remarks on Paul O'Neill http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml (January 9, 2004)
2000s, 2004

“[In response to "Reconstituted nuclear weapons. You misspoke."] Yeah. I did misspeak. I said repeatedly during the show weapons capability. We never had any evidence that he had acquired a nuclear weapon.”

Dick Cheney

Meet The Press with Tim Russert. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/ (Sept. 14, 2003)
2000s, 2003

“[In response to "We have not been greeted as liberators."] "Well, I think we have by most Iraqis. I think the majority of Iraqis are thankful for the fact that the United States is there, that we came and we took down the Saddam Hussein government. And I think if you go in vast areas of the country, the Shia in the south, which are about 60 percent of the population, 20-plus percent in the north, in the Kurdish areas, and in some of the Sunni areas, you’ll find that, for the most part, a majority of Iraqis support what we did.”

Dick Cheney

Meet The Press with Tim Russert. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/ (Sept. 14, 2003)
2000s, 2003

Support , Thinking , Parting , Country

“I think so. I guess if I look back on it now, I don't think anybody anticipated the level of violence that we've encountered.”

Dick Cheney

[In response to the question "Do you think that you underestimated the insurgency's strength?"] Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize Luncheon http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060619-10.html, June 19, 2006
2000s, 2006

Thinking

“Here's what I can tell you about Don Rumsfeld. You're never going to get any credit. And you'll only know how well you're doing if he gives you more work. If that happens, you're doing fine.”

Dick Cheney

Quoted in Bob Woodward's, State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III, Simon & Schuster, 2006
2000s, 2006

“With respect to the question of relationships, my general view is that freedom means freedom for everyone. People…ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.”

Dick Cheney

Remarks on same same-sex marriage Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29862-2004Aug24.html (25 August 2004)
2000s, 2004

People , Question , Freedom

“Oil remains fundamentally a government business. While many regions of the world offer great oil opportunities, the Middle East with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies, even though companies are anxious for greater access there, progress continues to be slow.”

Dick Cheney

Speech delivered at the London Institute of Petroleum http://web.archive.org/web/20000414054656/http://www.petroleum.co.uk/speeches.htm, 1999
1990s

World , Business

“If the Democratic policies had been pursued over the last two or three years…we would not have had the kind of job growth we've had.”

Dick Cheney

Lester Holt interview, MSNBC, March 2, 2004 whitehouse.archives.gov http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/03/20040302-8.html
2000s, 2004

“The senator has got his facts wrong. I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11, but there's clearly an established Iraqi track record with terror.”

Dick Cheney

At the Vice Presidential Debates, October 5, 2004. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/debatereferee/debate_1005.html
2000s, 2004

“The good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes friendly to the United States. Occasionally we have to operate in places where, all things considered, one would not normally choose to go. But, we go where the business is.”

Dick Cheney

Speech delivered at the Cato Institute http://www.cato.org/speeches/sp-dc062398.htm, (June 23, 1998)
1990s

Business

“We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.”

Dick Cheney

Cheney on NBC's Meet the Press, March 16, 2003 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/
2000s, 2003

“The threat levels are going up, the dangers are increasing and our capability to deal with them has gone down because of the way the Obama administration has operated for the last eight years.”

Dick Cheney

At the Ringling College Library Association Town Hall Lecture Series in Sarasota https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/articles/2017/1/23/dick-cheney-sarasota (January 2017)
2010s, 2017

Way

“Wolf, you can come up with all kinds of what-ifs; you've got to deal with the reality on the ground. The reality on the ground is, we've made major progress. We've still got a lot of work to do. There's a lot of provinces in Iraq that are relatively quiet. There's more and more authority transferred to the Iraqis all the time…. Bottom line is that we've had enormous successes and we will continue to have enormous successes.”

Dick Cheney

CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/images/01/24/cheney.transcript.pdf responding to the question, How worried are you of the Iraqi government turning against the United States? (January 24, 2007)
2000s, 2007

Reality , Wolf , Time , Success

“What the Democrats are suggesting, basically, about a withdrawal — you can call it redeployment, whatever you want to call it. Basically, it in effect validates the terrorists' strategy. You've got to remember that the Osama bin Laden-types, the al Qaeda-types, the Zarqawi-types that have been active in Iraq are betting that ultimately they can break the United States' will. There's no way they can defeat us militarily. Their whole strategy, if you look at what bin Laden's been saying for 10 years, is they believe they can, in fact, force us to quit, that ultimately we'll get tired of the fight, that we don't have the stomach for a long, tough battle and that we'll pack it in and go home. If we were to do that it would be devastating from the standpoint of the global war on terror. It would affect what happens in Afghanistan. It would make it difficult for us to persuade the Iranians to give up their aspirations for nuclear weapons. It would threaten the stability of regimes like Musharraf in Pakistan and the Saudis in Saudi Arabia. It is absolutely the worst possible thing we could do at this point. It would be to validate and encourage the terrorists by doing exactly what they want us to do.”

Dick Cheney

2000s, 2006

War , Way , Home , Fight

“Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas. And that makes the whole thing mutual — America sees two John Kerrys.”

Dick Cheney

Acceptance Speech http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0909-14.htm at the Republican National Convention. - Video and text available. (1 September 2004)
2000s, 2004

“If we hadn’t taken down Saddam, Gaddafi would not have surrendered his materials. Now Gaddafi’s gone, dead, [and] ISIS plays a significant role today in Libya, [and] they would have inherited that material,” Cheney said. “So that whole area of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and so forth, everybody wants to say, ‘Well, there wasn’t any WMD in Iraq,’ but that’s a small, small way to look at the problem.”

Dick Cheney

At the Ringling College Library Association Town Hall Lecture Series in Sarasota https://www.sarasotamagazine.com/articles/2017/1/23/dick-cheney-sarasota (January 2017)
2010s, 2017

Way , Problem , Dead

“This is an existential conflict. It is the kind of conflict that's going to drive our policy and our government for the next 20 or 30 or 40 years. We have to prevail and we have to have the stomach for the fight long term.”

Dick Cheney

On Fox News Sunday http://web.archive.org/web/20070114221322/http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/14/US.iraq.ap/index.html responding to the opposition against sending 21,500 more troops to Iraq (January 14, 2007)
2000s, 2007

Fight

“Dick Cheney: I don’t know, Hugh. I vacillate between the various theories I’ve heard, but you know, if you had somebody as president who wanted to take America down, who wanted to fundamentally weaken our position in the world and reduce our capacity to influence events, turn our back on our allies and encourage our adversaries, it would look exactly like what Barack Obama’s doing. I think his actions are constituted in my mind those of the worst president we’ve ever had.”

Dick Cheney

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzmYQFaGEKU
Hugh Hewitt Radio
2015-04-08, quoted in [Cheney: If You Wanted a President 'To Take America Down … It Would Look Exactly Like What Barack Obama’s Doing, DANIEL HALPER, The Weekly Standard, http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/cheney-if-you-wanted-president-take-america-down-it-would-look-exactly-what-barack-obama-s-doing_912837.html, 2015-04-17]
Hewitt and Cheney discuss Obama's ongoing nuclear talks with Iran.
2010s, 2015

World , Thinking

“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.”

Dick Cheney

Address http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/26/international/middleeast/full-text-in-cheneys-words.html at the Opening Session of the 103rd National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (August 26, 2002)
2000s, 2002