First of all, Saddam did not win the war, even though he says he did, I mean, you know, that’s a joke and everybody in the world knows it.

Schwarzkopf dismisses Saddam Hussein’s post–Gulf War propaganda claim of “victory” as transparently false. The line contrasts political narrative-making with observable military outcomes: Iraq’s forces were expelled from Kuwait and suffered decisive battlefield losses, even if Saddam’s regime survived. By calling the claim “a joke” and appealing to what “everybody in the world knows,” Schwarzkopf frames the war’s result as a matter of public, international consensus rather than partisan interpretation. The remark also reflects a broader postwar struggle over meaning—whether survival in power could be spun as success—while insisting that strategic and operational defeat cannot be rhetorically reversed.