[ceejayoz]

> Not getting your Cheney thing. If he said it, was probably a joke. But I doubt it, since Iraq was an Ally at the time.

"A decade before 9/11" was 1991, which saw the Persian Gulf War. The US and Iraq were most decidedly not allies then.

[CalChris]

> The US and Iraq were most decidedly not allies then.

Actually, the US and Iraq were allies until Iraq invaded Kuwait. Ambassador April Glaspie.

  We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as
  your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary Baker has directed me
  to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the
  1960s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with
  America.

The Iraqis even sent an Exocet missile into the USS Stark and other than bombing one of their oil platforms, Reagan turned the other cheek.

Until after the Kuwait invasion and until after Thatcher lent H some of her testicles, yeah, Reagan and Bush were Iraqi allies.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Saddam_r...

[maxq]

Good catch - so, clearly it was a joke or an expression of cynical acceptance; nukes were never an option

[quirkafleeg]

Another joke about nuking another country?

    as defense secretary for the elder Mr. Bush,
    Mr. Cheney commissioned a study of how many 
    tactical nuclear weapons would be needed to
    take out an Iraqi Republican Guard division,
    if necessary.

    (The answer: 17.)

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/george-h...