Dick Cheney, 2003 News

vice president, drew on his experience as secretary of defense during the 1991 Persian Gulf War as the Bush administration prepared for war in Iraq. While Cheney remained holed up in an undisclosed location during planning sessions, he remained a key behind-the-scenes player. In a March appearance on Meet the Press, he argued that diplomacy had run its course and that the U.S. should attack Iraq before Saddam Hussein launched his own preemptive strike.