Friday, October 23, 2009

Hooray for THIS Ronald Reagan....

By Ron Reagan

Former vice president and unindicted war criminal Dick Cheney is at it again. Last night, in a speech before a friendly audience at the right wing Center for Security Policy, Cheney once again lashed out at the current White House while strenuously pretending that the last eight years never really happened. He accused the Obama administration of “dithering” on the subject of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

Mr. Cheney’s concern for the safety and well-being of American troops in Afghanistan would be far more touching had he not been so instrumental in sending them into harm’s way in the first place (before losing interest as he pursued his unnecessary war of choice in Iraq).

Dithering? Is he suggesting that we’ve been bogged down in “the graveyard of empires” for eight years in what our own generals have described as a rapidly deteriorating situation because he and his boy-boss George W. Bush acted decisively?

This is the man who, in the immediate wake of the 9-11 attacks, began pushing for an invasion of Iraq, despite certain knowledge that Saddam Hussein was not even remotely involved. This is the man who, when a small American force had cornered Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora, concurred that sending reinforcements in to finish the job would be unwise, thus allowing Bin Laden to escape into Pakistan where al-Qaeda still enjoys sanctuary. This is the man who, in a despicable act of moral turpitude and abject cowardice, then overturned more than two centuries of proud anti-torture policy in America, emboldening our enemies and humiliating our nation before the civilized world. But while George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are probably spinning in their graves, Dick Cheney seems more intent on covering his sorry behind in an effort to avoid providing testimony under oath.

Dick Cheney knows full well who we ought to be pursuing with zeal, and I suspect it terrifies him.

Politics over security? Would that be anything like ideology over truth? Private profit over patriotism? Hidden agendas over the precious lives of young American men and women who are willing to put service to country above personal safety–something that Dick Cheney never had the guts to do in the days when he had “other priorities”?

Dick Cheney is a nose-blowing incompetent. When faced with the most important decisions any elected leader will confront–whether to send American citizens to war–he got it wrong. Each and every time… Saddam was connected to the 9-11 plot? No, he wasn’t. Saddam was harboring weapons of mass destruction? No, he wasn’t. He had an ongoing nuclear weapons program? No, he didn’t. Iraq posed a clear and present danger to the United States? Not a chance. The invasion of Iraq would be a cakewalk? Then why don’t you lead the parade, Dick? We’ll be greeted as liberators with showers of rose petals? Please! The litany of errors would be comical if they didn’t reflect such a tragic cost in blood and treasure.