After Five Years In Iraq, Richard Perle Claims ‘We Can’t Turn This Thing Around Overnight’
After Five Years In Iraq, Richard Perle Claims ‘We Can’t Turn This Thing Around Overnight’
Earlier this week, Iraq war architect Richard Perle defended the 2003 invasion, writing in the New York Times that “the right decision was made.” “We blundered into an ill-conceived occupation that would facilitate a deadly insurgency,” argues Perle, because we didn’t immediately hand power to Iraqi exiles like Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi.
Appearing on the radio show of Fox News’s John Gibson on Monday night, Perle chastised Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) assertion that “we cannot win” the civil war in Iraq. “We may not win, but to say we can’t win is clearly wrong,” argued Perle.
Perle then claimed that questioning the prospects for success in Iraq at this point was foolish because “after thirty years of a brutal dictatorship,” America can’t expect Iraq to be turned around “overnight”:
There are lots of problems and after thirty years of a brutal dictatorship, we can’t turn this thing around overnight. But to say we cannot win.
Listen here:
Considering that we are about to enter the sixth year of war, Perle appears to have an odd sense of what constitutes “overnight.” In fact, by Perle’s own count, America has now been an occupying power in Iraq for a 1/6 of the time that Saddam Hussein ruled.
And though he is now “running away” from any culpability for the war’s failure, Perle was amongst the chorus of voices arguing that political success in Iraq would be relatively easy:
And a year from now, I’ll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush. There is no doubt that, with the exception of a very small number of people close to a vicious regime, the people of Iraq have been liberated and they understand that they’ve been liberated. And it is getting easier every day for Iraqis to express that sense of liberation.
Ironically, Perle made that comment roughly four months after L. Paul Bremer assumed control of Iraq, which he now argues is when “the trouble began.”
Transcript:
GIBSON: Mr. Perle, I know you don’t have a lot of time. Let me get these two in before you have to leave us. Hillary Clinton said today, “we can’t win in Iraq.” A) is she right? B)…PERLE: No
GIBSON: B…
PERLE: She’s wrong.
GIBSON: She’s wrong.
PERLE: We may not win, but to say we can’t win is clearly wrong, unless she’s clairvoyant. Of course we can win. And I think at the moment we’re winning, now that doesn’t mean the tide can’t be turned. But we…al Qaeda is struggling to stay in tact as an organization. And its numbers are diminishing, support for it is diminishing. There are lots of problems and after thirty years of a brutal dictatorship, we can’t turn this thing around overnight. But to say we cannot win, I don’t know what she bases that on, except that it may be music to the ears of those who may vote for her in the remaining elections.
GIBSON: Well I’m sure that’s true.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
Watch us, jackass.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:24 pmno, not overnight.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:24 pm6 months.
Revising history before its even written…. another Bush Legacy
March 19th, 2008 at 12:24 pmThere is no way you can “win” an occupation. That is what the Democrats need to keep pounding on. I have as yet heard anyone, including our resident trolls, say how one can “win” an occupation.
Perle and his cohorts are trying to re-write history so that their names will not be in the “failure” category when the history of Iraq is written.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:25 pmWe may not win, but to say we can’t win is clearly wrong,” argued Perle.
We may not be able to say Perle is an idiot, but he clearly is.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:25 pmThe question must be asked: is Perle surprised at this point that there is no grand square in Baghdad named after President bush?
March 19th, 2008 at 12:26 pmI work with people like Perle. People who have gone so far right that they met the far left loons and discovered they are indistinguishable from one another. Commie, fascist, Pinko, whatever. No respect for the law.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:26 pmPerle was part of the pre 911 plan to invade Iraq. The debacle of Iraq can be laid at his feet as much as it can be laid at Bush/Cheney’s feet.
Protest the war today in a vigil near you! See Move on for the closest on to you.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:27 pmSo what is happening to the oil revenues that are finally coming to pay America back for ousting Saddam ? Where is the money going ?
March 19th, 2008 at 12:28 pmThe notion of “winning” in Iraq requires stating what our goals for the war and occupation actually are. The administration and most Iraq war boosters like Perle refuse to set benchmarks which would allow us to determine when we have actually “won” so we end up with an occupation without end, a conflict with no exit strategy.
We can look at the original stated goals of the war: ousting Saddam Hussein, eliminating WMDs, and removing terrorists from Iraq. We hung Saddam Hussein so we can check that off. The WMDs claim was a lie so that goal is moot. Iraq is more a haven for terrorists now than it was before the war, so I’d have to rate that a failure. We’ve also created a humanitarian crisis, emboldened Iran, caused energy prices to skyrocket, lost more than four thousand American lives, spent over half a trillion dollars, increased sectarian violence, and caused the loss of many many thousands of Iraqi lives.
It’s time to step back, evaluate and restate our goals, establish an exit strategy, and redeploy the troops to meet those new goals. This is what the Democrats are promising to do. McCain and his cabal of neocons, who got us into this mess in the first place, promise more wooly thinking and war without end.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:31 pmAnd a year from now, I’ll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush
And neocon shills like Perle should get paraded around in this grand square so the Iraqi people can wreak their vengeance on them.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:31 pmAnd also, what happen to Cheney’s comment we would only be in Iraq a few months hmmmmmmm? Funny how lies can change.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:32 pmtexaslady:
http://www.nytimes.com/ 2008/ 03/ 16/ world/ middleeast/ 16insurgent.html?pagewanted=1
March 19th, 2008 at 12:33 pmthese PNAC NeoKKKons are still feigning ignorance…..
don’t fall for it. they KNEW it would be a quagmire. the invasion, occupation, civil war, WMD lies, ethnic cleansing and QUAGMIRE was a premeditated foregone conclusion.
submit your war criminals to the Hague.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:34 pmWill Perle demand payment for having his picture posted?
March 19th, 2008 at 12:34 pm“Of course we can win.”
And of course, I can win the lotto. The difference being that no-one has to die while I wait in hope.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:36 pmRichard Perle doesn’t know anythinga about warfare but people think he’s some kind of expert. Being an ass kisser doesn’t add up to military expertise. I can tell you that we should have been out of Iraq years ago. Here’s a point to consider: Where is the Iraqi Army? What happened to “We’ll stand down when they stand up”? One of our soldier who has been trained for 5 years is already a Sergeant who leads men into battle. Shouldn’t that mean that the entire Iraqi Army is made up of Sergeant who can lead me into battle.
The same is true of 99 percent of the military forces in the entire world. Why does it take over 5 years for the Iraqi military to learn to fight? Whose country is it anyway, theirs or ours? Why should US soldier continue to die for a country where the people hate them? If some smart Republican can answer my questions, I’ll eat my hat. I know what I’m talking about, I’m a former US Army Infantryman, who served 11 years in the military.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:36 pmOh, and let’s go ahead and name a square after President Bush. That’s a great idea. Put a big statue of him riding a horse in it. Something for the Iraqis to knock over in celebration of the end of this occupation.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:36 pm“grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush” and what would that square be, the one that has 100 toilets?
Or is the one without electricity, or clean water, has old cluster bombs and depleted uranium rounds?
Or maybe the one with the bodies of 1,000,000 dead stacked high?
Or maybe the one with all those non-existent WMD’s?
Personally I going to name the dogs toilet disposal after Bush.
Bush/Cheney
March 19th, 2008 at 12:39 pmHague Trials ‘09
Perle: America can’t expect Iraq to be turned around “overnight”
Here’s another good question for Perle, or any right-winger, even a troll:
how long should it take for Republican policies to begin working as promised?
Perle says in Iraq, five years is “overnight”. How long can we expect before we see the promised results of this crucial plan?
Bush said his tax cuts for the wealthy would result in robust growth and a healthier economy. How long exactly should that take?
They said gay marriage would result in a breakdown of society and erosion of heterosexual marriage. Several states now have gay marriage. How long before those societies start to break down?
They said free market competition would bring down the cost of health care. When exactly should we look for that to happen?
We’d appreciate it if some of the right-wingers out there can get back to us on this. Cheers.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:40 pmHey, freedom’s untidy. Stuff happens. Now give us more money to throw down the rathole. For the next 100 years.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:40 pmhe was on “gibby” gibson’s show?
March 19th, 2008 at 12:46 pmsquare in Baghdad that is named after President Bush
Ha ha Ha ha ha ha
how you met Bush my Toilet Brush
March 19th, 2008 at 12:47 pmFletc3her-
March 19th, 2008 at 12:48 pmBush is afraid of horses. Put him on a horse with both front hooves in the air.
The vicious Bush gangster regime has illegally and criminally occupied Afghanistan for six and a half years and illegally and criminally occupied Iraq for five years. The Supreme Royal Moron Bush claims that “the world is better off” because of his war on Iraq. Hmm, are the more than one million dead Iraqis better off? Are the several million mained, wounded and displaced Iraqis better off now? Are the four thousand dead American soldiers better off now? Are the more than thirty thousand wounded American military better off now? Are the American taxpayers better off now having poured more than six hundred billion dollars down the twin Bush ratholes of Afghanistan and Iraq?
Thanks for the misery, Mr. Bush.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:51 pmThink Progress fails to tell its readers that Ahmed Chalabi was more than a Pentagon favorite.
Yes, he’s nothing more than an installed puppet leader, like Saddam was.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:51 pmIt is criminal that a dunce like him was given a position of responsibility and authority. Does he know the meaning of “Pyrrhic victory,” I wonder?
March 19th, 2008 at 12:53 pmLies, and the lying liars who tell them.
-A. Franken
March 19th, 2008 at 12:55 pmOmicron Ohayo Says:
Think Progress fails to tell its readers that Ahmed Chalabi was more than a Pentagon favorite. He was a favorite of the the Clinton administration, including Al Gore
Again — do you have a point?
March 19th, 2008 at 12:55 pmNice try Omicron.
Find some other wheaties to piss in, wouldja?
March 19th, 2008 at 12:56 pmOO is just another, probably recycled, troll, here to c*ck up threads with wild theories and arcane “facts”. A nutter, a foil-hatter in the highest degree.
Have your episode elsewhere dude - we’ve all had more than enough from your ilk.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:01 pmThanks for your concern for my education, Omicron, but I don’t think you understand what the word “hypocrisy” means. Either that, or you have a very, very generous threshold for it when discussing Democrats.
I wonder, do you hold Republicans to the same standard of “hypocrisy”? By this I mean, do you consider it hypocritical if a Republican makes a point without disclosing a decade-old backstory that has little if anything to do with the point being made?
March 19th, 2008 at 1:03 pmtombaker Says:
OO is just another, probably recycled, troll, here to c*ck up threads with wild theories and arcane “facts”.
(sigh) It looks like you’re right, tombaker. I thought maybe we had a right-winger worth talking to, but claiming that “Clinton killed” over half a million Iraqis and linking to a trash site as support is the classic sign of a useless troll.
“Clinton killed” them? I thought Saddam killed them? I thought that’s why we went into Iraq? At least, I’m sure for a couple months that was the justification. Somewhere between WMDs and “Freedom for the Iraqis”, wasn’t it? Around June, 2005?
March 19th, 2008 at 1:07 pmThis guy is one of the a-holes who needs to be dropped off in the Iraqi desert to fend for himself.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:10 pmAre all the neocons senile? Did they all forget what they said 5 years ago? What they assured the nation 5 years ago?
March 19th, 2008 at 1:11 pmJeezuz, can’t they just shut up and go away?!
Oh Oh-
March 19th, 2008 at 1:14 pmGiven that we now know that Reagan was negotiating with the Iranians to make sure that the hostages were not released until after the election are you arguing that Reagan had the power to install Saddam?
Oops forgot we’re arguing with links now…
March 19th, 2008 at 1:17 pmOh Oh — the new troll thinks Osama bin Forgotten is a good foundation for its opinions.
Fascinating.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:20 pmOmicron Ohayo Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
propaganda anyone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqY3pMcW8DI
i feel sorry for you. i truly do.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:21 pmOh Oh-
March 19th, 2008 at 1:22 pmFine, do you deny that Reagan was negotiating with the Iranians?
’cause ya didn’t answer the question…
and why are your partisan links and theories better than my partisan links and theories?
“sinsofthehusband.com” is run by Sixty Minutes?
Huh. Learn something new every day. Geez. By the way wingnuts trash 60 Minutes I wouldn’t have expected that news organization to run a Clinton-hit site.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:24 pmOmicron Ohayo Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
“Hmm, are the more than one million dead Iraqis better off?”
That’s a bogus figure. CNN placed the number of dead Iraqis under 90,000 this morning. That’s far fewer than the 567,000 Iraqi children under five that Clinton killed.
90,000? That’s a lie.
Counting all the deaths caused by coalition forces, in the civil war we unleashed, in the lawless anarchy that followed the invasion, from the ambulances that could not get through our checkpoints, from the outbreaks of preventable disease we caused by leaving water and sanitation systems unrepaired, in hospitals that have been left without power or medicine, 1.2 million is a LOW estimate.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:25 pmOmicron Ohayo Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
i think this settles the whole issue, don’t you?
http://www.stewwebb.com/ libby_rich_clinton_murdered_vince_foster.htm
i feel so sorry for you. i truly do.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:25 pmOh oh-
March 19th, 2008 at 1:25 pmHere ya go… you can read all about it- it even has both sides of the argument represented…
“Does Saddam now have weapons of mass destruction? Sure, he does. We know he has chemical weapons. We know he has biological weapons.”
Richard N. Perle, testimony before Senate Foreign Relations Committee, March 1, 2001.
Why does anyone pay any attention to this piece of shit at all?
March 19th, 2008 at 1:26 pmOmicron Ohayo Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
btw - did that last one go over you head?
March 19th, 2008 at 1:26 pmOmicron Ohayo Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Bin Laden said in 1997 that he would send Clinton “messages with no words.” Al Qaeda then bombed two U.S. embassies in 1998, the USS Cole in 2000, and, of course, 9/11.
Well it’s a good thing we invaded Iraq, huh? Why go after the real terrorist threat when we can invade and occupy and lose more than 4,000 soldiers and 4 trillion dollars in a country with no connection to Usama bin Laden and al-Qa’ida?
GREAT PLAN!
March 19th, 2008 at 1:32 pmBin Laden said in 1997 that he would send Clinton “messages with no words.”
March 19th, 2008 at 1:32 pmWhich is exactly why Richard Clarke and Clinton suggested that the Bush Administration should pay attention to Bin Laden… Condi, Perle and Bush ignored both Clarke and Bin Laden.
By “Bin Laden determined to attack inside U.S.” do you think that Clarke meant Bin Laden would blow kisses to Bush?
Omicron Ohayo reported for off topic and spamming site
March 19th, 2008 at 1:32 pmI keep forgetting to argue with links…
March 19th, 2008 at 1:34 pmOmicron Ohayo Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Ralph:
“sinsofthehusband.com” is run by Sixty Minutes?”
Not too bright, are you? It was “60 Minutes” that said Clinton’s sanctions killed half a million Iraqi children. Just click on the video on http://www.sinsofthehusband.com.
ROTFL!! Don’t you mean GHBush’s Sanctions? HYSTERICALLY STUPID AS ALWAYS, you poor stupid GOP TARD!
March 19th, 2008 at 1:39 pmOmicron Ohayo Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
maybe this will help,
http://www.internetconfession.com/confession.php?id=115
did i mention that i felt sorry for you? i truly do.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:41 pmWhen trolls start quoting Bin Laden the terrorists have won.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:55 pmOmicron Ohayo Says:CLINTON DID IT,CLINTON DID IT,CLINTON DID IT!!!
March 19th, 2008 at 1:58 pmAnother ditto-head troll who follows the great Oxy-addled FATASS!After the 60+million WE (taxpayers) spent on investigating him you think we would have got him on something more than a BJ. Piss-poor troll,not even worth the 5 cents a post he gets from the RNC…
Dick Perle… this Facist neocon animal should be behind barrs waiting for his trial on War Crimes!
March 19th, 2008 at 2:00 pmGuess what, OO - no one’s buying. Find a nice streetcorner to peddle your jibber-jabber on. I’ll even pitch in to make a nice cardboard sign for ya.
March 19th, 2008 at 2:15 pmOmicron Ohayo Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Iraq actually had WMD when George HW Bush and the UN placed sanctions on Iraq.
http://www.sinsofthehusband.com\
___________
Well, duh-by’s daddy otter have known, seeing how he helped GIVE those WMDs to Saddam in the first place.
“While the August 18 NYT article added new details about the extent of US military collaboration with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during Iraq’s 1980-88 war with Iran, it omitted the most outrageous aspect of the scandal: not only did Ronald Reagan’s Washington turn a blind-eye to the Hussein regime’s repeated use of chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers and Iraq’s Kurdish minority, but the US helped Iraq develop its chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.”
March 19th, 2008 at 2:19 pmHow about old Rummy shaking Husseins hand back in the 80’s? I wonder where Saddam got the gas ect. he used on the Kurds?
March 19th, 2008 at 2:20 pmI guess CLINTON DID IT!
Looks like we were typing at the same time TROS. These trolls are getting worse by the day. I guess the RNC has outsourced to India, huh?
March 19th, 2008 at 2:22 pmDone with this troll. It’s a wonder it can dress itself in the morning. Ooh, and IT called us MOONBATS,IT SHORE SHOWED US HUH?
March 19th, 2008 at 2:56 pmAnd it’s right we ARE MUCH ON HISTORY. Thank you troll!
March 19th, 2008 at 2:57 pm“The slow decline of the United States”
March 19th, 2008 at 2:59 pmPeter Hitchens, Mail on Sunday journalist, predicts changes in the distribution of global power and “the slow decline of the United States as the main world power.”
Man. These “new” trolls are pathetic. Hardly worth whacking. I’m beginning to think that the “real” trolls have given up and TP is providing parodies to keep threads going.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:26 pmGoogle Omicron Ohayo & you’ll see who we’re dealing with here.
Figures…
March 19th, 2008 at 3:36 pmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Perle
It’s the same corruption all along.
All these fascist murders need to pay the piper.
It’s time.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:14 pm[Perle]: And a year from now, I’ll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush.
Right. I’ve commented here (see update) on that. BTW, Perle may well be right … and I’m quite sure that Perle understands the principle quite well, you know, “White Man’s Burden” and all that stuff, that unfortunately came upon hard times a half century ago but which is getting a well-deserved disinterment.
(*PSSST!* Halliburton’s getting the contract….)
Cheers,
March 19th, 2008 at 6:46 pm@8 overlap Says:
March 19th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Mccain and Bush say Iraq was worth it.
They aren’t …. sniff sniff…..lying? Are they?
Of course they weren’t lying. For themselves and their cronies it was worth every drop of blood and money.
March 20th, 2008 at 12:16 pm