Outside the Beltway

Cheney Wanted to Bomb Syria in 2007

Steven L. Taylor · Thursday, August 25, 2011 · 3 comments

Via the NYT: Cheney Says He Urged Bush to Bomb Syria in ’07

Former Vice President Dick Cheney says in a new memoir that he urged President George W. Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007. But, he wrote, Mr. Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers — still stinging over “the bad intelligence we had received about Iraq’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction” — expressed misgivings.

“I again made the case for U.S. military action against the reactor,” Mr. Cheney wrote about a meeting on the issue. “But I was a lone voice. After I finished, the president asked, ‘Does anyone here agree with the vice president?’ Not a single hand went up around the room.”

I guess that Cheney’s memoir is going to reinforce the notion that he was the uber hawk in the Bush administration.

FILED UNDER: US Politics, Bush Administration, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Iraq, New York Times, Syria, Uber, weapons of mass destruction

About Steven L. Taylor

Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

Dave Schuler says:

Thursday, 25 August 2011 at 11:00

We might save time if we made a list of the countries he didn’t want to bomb.
Ron Beasley says:

Thursday, 25 August 2011 at 19:05

Good one Dave! I have disagreed at one time or another but Cheney was a first for me – he is truly evil.
Franklin says:

Friday, 26 August 2011 at 10:01

Schuler beat me to it.

My views have softened significantly on GWB, but one thing I can’t forgive him for is his choice of VP, which of course was influenced heavily by Cheney himself.