vice president dick cheney appeared on nbc s meet the press. he and others were set to launch the iraq war in a few days. he was confident how it would turn out. he was confident how our president and others would be perceived in how the country would invade. i think things have gotten so bad inside iraq, we will be greeted as liberators. our president is clear that our purpose there is if we re forced to do this, we ll in fact be a stand-up government and have respect for human rights. it involves a major commitment by the united states. it is a commitment worth making. if your analysis is not correct and we are treated as conquerors, do you think the american people are prepared for a long, costly and bloody battle with a significant american
that guy was the highest ranking army officer and the bush administration disregarded his professional opinion. the person who was most zealous about going into iraq was dick cheney. i want to thank rula and marc ginsberg. a quick programming note. you must tune in to watch hubris hosted by rache rachel maddow. coming up, we will switch and talk about other bad guys. the coke brothers. it s the billionaire takeover and the preview of the documentary american winter. first kid
american s people perception of our role abroad. the fact of the matter is the dangers the american people now face are more considerably harmful to american s attitudes toward military involvement because of iraq. what iraq did was it expended our treasury and put men and women in harm s way where they, themselves and parents and families and communities are reluctant to believe our government faces the types of threats we may face in the future. when i stop and think about when i went to visit twice and saw the young men and women who volunteered as patrick said after 9/11, thinking they were doing the right thing and now our standing in the middle east is far. it has enhanced iran s statue. americans weren t respect in the region. both shi ite and sunni in the middle east are not ruling as
gives weapons to abbas and hezbollah, we altered the whole equation. after abu ghraib, you could not travel. when that journalist took his shoe and threw it at george w. bush, it was the way the arab world saw america and its president. as a soldier, patrick, did you feel at the time when you were in iraq, there was absolutely no greeting us? how quickly did you realize we are not here to liberate these people. we re occupying these people. it was the first memorial service. we had the combat boots and rifle with the helmet on top. it happened too many times. what infuriates me, so much, joy, the same folks responsible for this are the same ones cheerleading for us to go into
until december 15th 2011. the day the american flag was lowered in baghdad making the iraq conflict a war lasting eight years and eight months and three weeks and four days. and after all that, you got the check, america, in the amount of $823 billion and change. that s what the bill came to up through 2011. even that might be under estimating things. what we might end up paying for the iraq war and military activity in afghanistan and pakistan, might end up closer to, get this, just under $4 trillion. according to costs of war, a research project by brown university s watson institute for international studies. adding $1.4 trillion to the national debt and costing the average american taxpayer about $4,000 per person. interest payments could increase the overall cost even more. what about the economy in iraq?