When former Vice President Dick Cheney passed away on November 3, 2025, Public Radio Exchange’s The World reached out to Amb. (ret.) Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi to reflect on his legacy.
Al-Istrabadi was principal legal drafter of the Iraqi interim constitution of 2004 and continues to be a leading expert on the Iraqi constitution and the post-2003 period. He served as Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations from 2004-2010. He is the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School.
PRX asked al-Istrabadi about Cheney’s role in advocating for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq during which Saddam Hussein’s government was overthrown.
Al-Istrabadi expressed his support. “I couldn't imagine Saddam Hussein leaving office any other way than by a foreign intervention, by a power like the United States,” he said, calling Hussein “one of the greatest despots to rule in the last quarter of the twentieth century.”
Once Hussein was removed from power, al-Istrabadi noted a disconnect between the messaging from Washington and what he saw on the ground. “When all of us who were in Iraq at the time could see in late 2003 that the insurgency was really beginning to gain speed...Cheney gets up in national news and says, “The insurgency is in its last throes,’” reflected al-Istrabadi. “It was just beginning.”
Furthermore, al-Istrabadi explained that the failure to plan for an exit strategy had long term consequences affect U.S. foreign policy to this day.
To hear al-Istrabadi's full commentary on the long-term consequences of the prolonged U.S. invasion of Iraq, listen to the full segment at Public Radio Exchange’s The World.
For those interested in the intersection of area studies and law, the Hamilton Lugar School is home to the nation’s only undergraduate degree in International Law and Institutions. By enrolling in al-Istrabadi's Iranian Studies, Contemporary Persian Gulf, or Introduction to International Law courses, students can study with a leading expert who helped shape history.