NEWS JUNKIE POST
Oct 23, 2009 at 1:08 pmCheney’s Singing The Same Tune: Bash’s Obama, Defends Bush Policy
Dick Cheney crawled out of his undisclosed location Wednesday night to pick up a fright wing accolade called “the Keeper of the Flame Award” from the Center for National Security. He used the occasion to slam President Obama’s Afghanistan policy. “The White House has to stop dithering and putting our forces in danger,” he said to a cheering partisan crowd.
Excuse me? Talk about chutzpah.Talk about credibility gap. I mean is there anyone left on this planet with a scintilla of common sense and a vague understanding of recent history that can seriously listen to this former puppet master who can’t shoot straight?
How many lives did W. and Dick put in jeopardy with their Neo-Con trigger-happy jaunt in Iraq? Maybe had there been a little more deliberation back in 2002-03, the myth of WMDs could have been debunked, along with that of Iraq’s involvemnet in the 9/11 attacks. Not to mention the naive Saturday matinee notion of being greeted as liberators by the Iraqi people.
Maybe if Bush and Cheney had spent more time on the war in Afghanistan that they started, maybe there wouldn’t be such a military mess upon which Obama is left to “dither.” On Thursday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called Cheney’s remarks “curious… it’s safe to say that for seven years the Vice President didn’t focus on Afghanistan. What Vice President Cheney calls dithering, President Obama calls his responsibility.”
Maj. General Paul Eaton(Ret.) called Cheney an “incompetent war fighter,” on MSNBC. He rounded out his assessment of the Bush-Cheney policies by warning the nation against the sort of “group think” that allowed essentially three men ( Bush, Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) to make decisions without any checks and balances. The Congress blindly handed them power and the media rescinded its probative value for a crucial time.
On ABC’s Good Morning America Friday, former Clinton State Department official, James Rubin said,”For seven years THEY dithered. They wouldn’t make the hard decisions and finish the success they had in the first couple of months.” He said the Obama administration is left with the debris, adding, ‘We really should focus on the fact that this is a Bush administration error.”
Alas, there are no admissions of error to be found in Cheney’s arsenal. On Thursday, he was back playing his own game of arrogant offensive defense. At a speech before The Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, the former Veep defended his record on torture. Only in the Neo-Con handbook they call it “enhanced interrogation.” He said, “We saved thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives.” And everything was all–pardon the expression–above board. Even the oft debated waterboarding. The former draft dodger assured his like-mined crowd everything they did was,”legal, essential, successful and the right thing to do. We were trying to prevent future killings.” Oh, and like he said, they didn’t commit torture. So stop asking about that, okay?
It’s not okay with some of us loco lefties who just can’t accept Cheney’s myopic perspective. Air America host Ron Reagan got into a heated debate with Frank Gaffney, the guy who gave Cheney his award on MSNBC’s Hardball Thursday. ‘It’s one thing to give an award to a convicted felon ( alluding to Cheney’s former Chief-of-Staff Scooter Libby, who was also honored) and another to honor an unindicted war criminal, which is what Dick Cheney is.”
The lighter side of this all-too serious issue was spotlighted the other day as a list of some songs that were used as part of torture practices at Gitmo were leaked ( a group of music artists including R.E.M, and Jackson Browne are signing on to a Freedom of Information request to release documents ). The sampling includes Queen’s “We are the Champions,” and the “Sesame Street Theme.”
I’m surprised they didn’t just blast the whole prison with a non-stop loop of former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s “Let the Eagle Soar.” And I’m sure there’s a copy of former Sen. Larry Craig’s cover of “Smoking in the Boy’s Room.” Guess that would constitute undisputed torture. Even Dick Cheney has to draw the line somewhere.
At least George W. has the good sense to stay out of sight and sound. What is with this Cheney – why can’t he just fade away. And he gets an Award????? Give me a Break! I think we should all give our President Obama a chance to straighten out this lousy legacy – may the ‘force’ be with him!!!!!!!!
It certainly isn’t going to be easy!