Piers Morgan Asks If Iraqis Aren't Any Better Off Than Under Saddam Hussein
According to CNN's Piers Morgan, the U.S. mission in Iraq was a failure
and Iraqis could ask if they're any better off now than under dictator
Saddam Hussein.
Interviewing former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday, Morgan
brought up recent instability in Iraq and noted: "I suppose if you're
living in Iraq and you're an Iraqi, you're saying are we really any
better off now than we were under Saddam Hussein, brutal though he was
and despotic though he was."
[Video below. Audio here.]
"When you at it in totally is it possible to conjure up any impression
that this was a successful mission for America and the allied forces
there?" Morgan asked Gates, who countered that it was.
"But as far we're concerned I believe we accomplished our mission in
stabilizing the country and handing over a fragile democracy. What they
do with it is really up to them in the long run," he concluded.
Below is a partial transcript of the segment:
CNN
PIERS MORGAN LIVE
1/15/14
[9:07 p.m. EST]
PIERS MORGAN: There's another big news story today which is absolutely
in your old wheel house, which is Iraq, 61 people at least were killed
and scores wounded in the latest wave of attacks in Baghdad and across
the county. It looks from the outside as if Iraq is teetering into real
civil war here, with the double problem of al Qaeda now apparently
running Fallujah and other areas in Iraq. When you at it in totally is
it possible to conjure up any impression that this was a successful
mission for America and the allied forces there?
GATES: Well I think that we succeeded in the mission in 2008 and 2009
of being able to turn over to the Iraqis a fragile but real democratic
government, a democratically elected government, as well as security and
stability in the country. We basically handed them their future on a
silver platter. My own view is that you can't freeze history in place. I
think we accomplished our mission and we withdrew in the way that was
not strategic defeat with global consequences for us.
(...)
GATES: But as far we're concerned I believe we accomplished our mission
in stabilizing the country and handing over a fragile democracy. What
they do with it is really up to them in the long run.
PIERS MORGAN: I mean, I suppose if you're living in Iraq and you're an
Iraqi, you're saying are we really any better off now than we were under
Saddam Hussein, brutal though he was and despotic though he was, when
he got 61 Iraqis killed in a single day and this follows up ugly
patterns being going on for quite some time. Do you not think there is
an argument to say that the Americans should never have gone in to Iraq
in the first place, that it was an issue that the Iraqis should have
resolved themselves?
GATES: Well, there's no doubt in my mind that there is a certain
percentage of Iraqis who always considered us to be occupiers and were
against our being there in the first place and against our staying and I
think that that sentiment was one of the reasons the Iraqis in the end
were unwilling to agree to a residual U.S. military presence in the
country. There just wasn't broad enough support. On the other hand, I
think that most – for most Iraqis life is in fact significantly better
than it was under Saddam Hussein. Both in terms of – in economic terms
but also in terms of their own personal safety and security, despite of
the violence that's been going on.
— Matt Hadro is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Matt Hadro on Twitter.
