--- title: Dick Cheney Says Iraq War Was Right, Criticizes Barack Obama description: No regrets from the former VP canonical: https://time.com/2919765/dick-cheney-iraq-obama/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-25T05:16:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:11.708Z article:section: Politics og:title: Dick Cheney Says Iraq War Was Right, Criticizes Barack Obama og:description: No regrets from the former VP og:url: https://time.com/2919765/dick-cheney-iraq-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f3f9c995faa7059/698699243bc9992a971a43f2/489851189.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Dick And Lynne Cheney Participate In Book Discussion In Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dick Cheney Says Iraq War Was Right, Criticizes Barack Obama twitter:description: No regrets from the former VP twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f3f9c995faa7059/698699243bc9992a971a43f2/489851189.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Dick Cheney Says Iraq War Was 'the Right Thing' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Megyn Kelly to Dick Cheney: Wrong, sir [Watch (HLS stream): Megyn Kelly to Dick Cheney: Wrong, sir](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ojqul1Fo.m3u8) (2:26)  _Published 2014-06-19. Megyn Kelly to Dick Cheney: Wrong, sir_ by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jun 25, 2014 5:16 AM UTC  Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in Washington Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in Washington Win McNamee—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Jun 25, 2014 5:16 AM UTC Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday stood by the Bush Administration’s decision to wage war in Iraq, saying he has never second-guessed the decision even with Iraq once again descending into chaos. “I was a strong advocate of going into Iraq,” Cheney told PBS in an interview, a week after launching a new political group designed to boost his foreign policy and national-security policies. “I think that was the right decision then, and I still believe that today.” “I think we did what we had to do,” Cheney added, saying he is still not convinced Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 invasion. “And you don’t get to go back and say, well, we would have — what if we’d ignored all the intelligence?” Cheney blasted President Barack Obama’s handling of the situation in Iraq, saying he should have more forcefully pushed to keep U.S. troops in the country after 2011 to help keep the country stable. “For me, the bottom line was, when we left office, Iraq was in good shape,” Cheney said. “And now we’re in a situation where obviously we’ve got another big problem.” But the former Vice President largely agreed with Obama’s handling of the current crisis that has seen the extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria make significant gains in the country. Cheney called for the deployment of additional U.S. military advisers and a swift transition for the Iraqi government, and he warned that American air strikes could have unintended complications. Cheney said the U.S. response to the Iraq crisis must be part of a broader strategy for the volatile region that he says Obama has not yet developed. He also called on Obama to halt the planned withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016. “I would stop talking about withdrawing from Afghanistan,” Cheney said. “We ought to stay in Afghanistan. We shouldn’t be scaling back.” Cheney also called for Obama to swiftly work to boost Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the former military leader who deposed the elected Muslim Brotherhood–led government before his election this year. “I’d help al-Sisi every chance I got,” Cheney said. Cheney said he was unaware of the conviction of three al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt this week, which has been condemned by the U.S. and by European governments. “I haven’t seen that. I’m not familiar with it,” Cheney said of the news that dominated the front pages of national newspapers on Tuesday. “I missed that one.” ## Transcript The, in your op- ed, you write as follows. Rarely has a U. S. President been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. But, time and time again, history has proven that you got it wrong, as well, in Iraq, sir. You said there was no doubt Saddam Hussein had weap, weapons of mass destruction. You said we would be greeted as liberators. You said the Iraq insurgency was in the last throes back in 2005. And you said that after our intervention, extremists would have to quote rethink their strategy of Jihad. Now with almost a trillion dollars spend there, with 4500 American lives lost there. What do you say to those who say you were so wrong about so much at the expense of so many? No, I just fundamentally disagree, Reagan, Megan, they, you've gotta go back and look at the track record. We inherited a situation where there was no doubt in anybody's mind, about the extent of Saddam's involvement in weapons of mass destruction. We had a situation where if we after 9 / 11 we were concerned about a follow on attack. That would involve not just airline tickets and box cutters as the weapons, but rather something far deadlier. Perhaps even a nuclear weapon. Saddam Hussein had a track record that nearly everybody agreed to. We had an overwhelming vote of approval from Congress, more votes for the action than we've had in Desert Storm some ten years before. Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, numerous others spoke to the difficulties of the intelligence. That all of us saw with respect to the threat that Saddam Hussein represented. It would have been irresponsible for us not to act. We did do the right thing. And I think the troops perf, performed magnificently. And now, we're in a situation where what Liz and I posted in our op- ed this morning is, it's not just Iraq. But it's a whole pattern of behavior over the last six years. That has refused to recognize that there is a war on terror. That we've got to move very aggressively to be able to deal with that and this administration has repeatedly demonstrated that they don't believe it. Barack, uh, Obama has stated repeatedly the terror threats gone. We've gotten Bin Laden. That's clearly not the true case. It's not the truth. And in fact, we have a situation tonight where terrorism is potentially in charge of a larger part of the Middle East than ever before in our history. 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