It’s a question you’ve probably heard a lot no matter what side of the issue you’re on. What exactly did we get out of Iraq? Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly put the question directly to the man who is at least second-most responsible for our presence there: Former Vice President Dick Cheney .
O’Reilly sat down with Cheney for the first time on The O’Reilly Factor Monday night, and led with pressing questions on whether the U.S.’s military initiatives in Iraq and Afghanistan were effective, and whether they were even worth it in the long run.
Cheney ended up passing the buck to the Obama administration, explaining that everything was going well until President Obama withdrew troops early in his presidency. He claimed that the bush administration had a clear plan for transition in Iraq and that the troop draw-down violated that.
Because of President Obama’s actions, Cheney said, the “level of violence has escalated significantly.”
O’Reilly retorted that he didn’t think invading Iraq in the first place was the best idea. “We spent a trillion dollars on this with a lot of pain and suffering on the American military. What did we get out of it?”
Further, O’Reilly said that regardless of the victories the U.S. could claim in the Iraq war, “I don’t know if their suffering and blood was worth it.”
Regardless, Cheney argued that non-intervention is a fantasy. “We don’t have the choice anymore… of crawling back behind our oceans and saying what happens out there doesn’t affect us.”
Watch the video below, via Mediaite :
[Image: Wikimedia Commons]