Why Everyone Should Immediately Stop Listening To Dick Cheney

DICK "DICK" CHENEY

In an op-ed published in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, former Vice President Dick Cheney — along with his equally neoconservative daughter, Liz Cheney — accuses President Obama of intentionally undermining the nation’s national security interests in Iraq in an effort to take America “down a notch” in the world. It’s the latest charge levied against Obama by former Bush administration officials who orchestrated the 2003 invasion of Iraq and have since reclaimed their expertise to advise the president on how to best handle the spread of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

War architects L. Paul Bremer, Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith aren't letting their false predictions about President Bush’s war in Iraq stop them from arguing in favor of muscular American military intervention — be it air strikes or boots on the ground. And they’re predictably downplaying the roles of the invasion and subsequent reconstruction policies in destabilizing the country and the region.

But the former vice president — who spent years arguing that anyone who questions the administration during a time of war is unpatriotic — goes a step further. He uses the current spike in violence to rehabilitate the Bush administration’s decision to invade and then accuses Obama of intentionally ignoring the terrorist threat and knowingly aiding American enemies. It’s as if the Bush administration left Iraq a peaceful nirvana and Obama broke it into a thousand little pieces.

“Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many,” Cheney begins. “Iraq is at risk of falling to a radical Islamic terror group and Mr. Obama is talking climate change. Terrorists take control of more territory and resources than ever before in history, and he goes golfing.”

Then, the criticism becomes stunningly personal and vitriolic: Obama, he argues, is purposely and knowingly hurting the nation by failing to follow the advise of the very men who invaded the nation in the first place. Cheney writes that “Obama seems determined to leave office ensuring he has taken America down a notch,” and concludes that the president is “on track to securing his legacy as the man who betrayed our past and squandered our freedom.”

The former Vice President also hasn't limited his personal attacks on Obama to Iraq. Cheney has previously claimed that Obama is un-American and speculated that he proposed cutting military funding because he doesn't like our troops. Which leads to an obvious conclusion: Americans should stop listening to Cheney — not because he disagrees with the administration on policy or politically — but because he doesn't seem to believe that the president acts in good faith or was ever legitimate in the first place.

NFTOS

STAFF WRITER

"WAR CRIMINAL" WITHDRAWS FROM RUTGERS SPEACH

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATIONS WAR CRIMES

From my birth place:

After faculty at two branches of Rutgers University in New Jersey called on the University administration to rescind an agreement with Condoleezza Rice to speak at its commencement this year, calling her a “war criminal,” Rice has withdrawn from the engagement.

Faculty on both the Newark and New Brunswick campuses pointed to Rice’s role in the Bush Administration’s efforts to persuade the nation of the supposed need to invade Iraq, and to her role in trying to justify the use of torture, they asserted that she is not a fit speaker for the University’s commencement ceremony.

The New Brunswick resolution stated that, as a public institution of higher education, the University had a responsibility to inform students about historical events, not pretend they never happened.

The faculty at the Rutgers campus in Camden voted not to join the protest.

In response, the President of the University stated that they had received even letters from high school students arguing for both sides, some threatening to withdraw applications if the University failed to, or did, withdraw the invitation. He characterized the debate as a free exchange of ideas in the context of civil discourse in keeping with the traditions of great universities.

Rice’s contract with Rutgers provided for $35,000 payment and an honorary doctorate as her compensation for her address.

In withdrawing from the agreement, Rice was gracious. She wrote,

“I am honored to have served my country. I have defended America’s belief in free speech and the exchange of ideas. These values are essential to the health of our democracy. But that is not what is at issue here. As a Professor for thirty years at Stanford University and as its former Provost and Chief Academic Officer, I understand and embrace the purpose of the commencement ceremony and I am simply unwilling to detract from it in any way.”

Rice served as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State in the administration of George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. She was the first African American woman to hold both positions. She was also the first woman and first African American to serve as Provost at Stanford University, a position she took in 1993 after twelve years as a professor of political science there.

Because of her positions in the Bush Administration, she is closely linked to his catastrophic foreign policy.

Some 50 students held a sit-in at the University’s main administration building to protest Rice as commencement speaker. Faculty planned a teach-in to facilitate discussion of the controversy.

The University President, responding to Rice’s withdrawal, said the University stood behind the invitation, but respected her decision.

This is only the beginning, as I have a feeling history will not be kind to anyone from the "liars club".

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West