Did Richard Perle really say this?

[UrbScotty]

"The greatest triumph of the Iraq war is the destruction of the evil of international law."

[RPM]

1. dunno

wouldn put it past him.

[Greeby]

2. Yup

I saw that in an article somewhere in the blogosphere. Trouble is, I can't remember where :shrug:

[rman]

3. wouldn't surprise me, that man says the darnest things

"If we let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely, and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy but just wage total war, our children will sing great songs about us years from
now." - Richard "Prince of Darkness" Perle

[jimshoes]

15. There's already tons of songs

being sung about you war ghouls, Mr Perle. And not one of them is singing your praises.

[thebigidea]

17. actually Michael Ledeen said that, though Perle concurred

[davekriss]

19. To be accurate

I think that was said by someone else, also a neocon, at a roundtable conference that Perle participated on.

On edit: See post 17, above. Michael Leeden, not Perle. However the statement, not countered by Perle, shows how whacky crazy these boys are, IMO.

[wtmusic]

4. He's full of veritable chestnuts like that

"Support for Saddam, including within his military organization, will collapse at the first whiff of gunpowder."

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/saddam/transcript2.html

[wtmusic]

7. We might get a reappraisal of the state of international law

as he's being frog-marched to the gallows

[Cocoa]

5. speaking of Richard Perle...

where the hell has he been recently? It used to be you couldn't turn on C-span or PBS without benefitting from his insights.

[firefox]

6. Google says yes

A Google search produced 306 results are at http://tinyurl.com/7zjwg

From the last paragraph at http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0317-02.htm

But as Richard Perle, a senior adviser to US President George Bush said at the start of the Iraq war: "The greatest triumph of the Iraq war is the destruction of the evil of international law."

[dchill]

8. Something like that

He admitted that the Iraq invasion was illegal:

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/000795.php

International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.

In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."

But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.

Close enough for government work...

[ck4829]

9. Yes

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3931759&mesg_id=3933962

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22The+greatest+triumph+of+the+Iraq+war+is+the+destruction+of+the+evil+of+international+law%22

[ChiDem]

10. He also said...

International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."

LINK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1089158,00.html

AND.....
Didn't he say something like..."Thank god the UN is dead"

[Technowitch]

11. As far as I can tell, no he did not

It appears to have been either a mistranslation or deliberate fabrication on the part of Al Jazeera (which isn't exactly known for its reliability).

However, Pearle did say "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing." (Nov 19, 2003)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1089158,00.html

Anyway, that's what my own research (Google, mainly, following the links where they lead) suggests.

-Technowitch

[Cocoa]

13. I don't have that view of al Jazeera

I'd be shocked if they deliberately falsified a quote.

[thebigidea]

18. when was AL-J known for being unreliable? How about a cite or two?

any errors in their coverage i've missed somehow?

[tsuki]

12. I don't remember that. But when he admitted that the Iraqi war is

illegal under international law, he said: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."

He has also been accused of profitting from the war and is threatening to sue Sy Hersh in Britain.

[NMDemDist2]

14. when I googled the only place I could find it was here:

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6890A8DA-AF79-45AD-BB4F-42C060978A07.htm

[punpirate]

16. The only source for the quote...

... is from an al-Jazeera story which was a compilation of stories by Adam Porter, writing from France, for its March 17, 2005 edition.

It could be that another quote of Perle's was mistranslated or misremembered. What Perle has been accurately quoted as saying, in this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1089158,00.html

... is "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."

The Guardian goes on to write, "...But Mr. Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that 'international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone', and this would have been morally unacceptable."

Cheers.