Cheney: Letting Iraq Military Disband Was Mistake

After the United States won the battle for Baghdad in the Iraqi war, the nation’s military essentially collapsed. And former Vice President Dick Cheney says maybe the United States should have prevented the military establishment from disintegrating once strongman Saddam Hussein was ousted.

“It may have been a mistake,” Cheney said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday.

To be sure, what to do about Iraq’s military wasn’t all under U.S. control, the former vice president pointed out.

“A large part of it was they [Iraqi troops] just packed up and went home,” Cheney said. “It wasn’t as if they all found a place and waited for us to come in and take command of the army.”

Asked to respond to former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s recent statement that Cheney and his staff chose not to plan for a post-Saddam Iraq, Cheney said, “There were a number of things we expected would happen that didn’t happen.”