Darth Cheney has emerged again from whatever hole he occupies, to proclaim the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Bengazi “the worst disaster” he can recall, and to assert that it is evidence of the incompetence of the Obama Administration.
Leaving aside the fact that the Republicans in Congress engineered significant cuts to the budget for embassy security, despite warnings that the cuts would endanger American lives, it is hard to believe the chutzpah of a Bush Administration VP (“vice” in every sense of the word). This was the administration that ignored “Bin Laden Determined to Attack in U.S.” and saw the destruction of the Twin Towers.
This was also the administration in power when we sustained fifty plus attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities abroad, thirteen of which were lethal. (And that’s excluding those in Baghdad). Those attacks in which American diplomats lost their lives occurred during Cheney’s “rein,” and before Barack Obama ever stepped into the Oval Office: Jan. 22, 2002, Calcutta, India; June 14, 2002, Karachi, Pakistan; Oct. 12, 2002, Denpasar, Bali; Feb. 28, 2003, Islamabad, Pakistan; May 12, 2003, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,July 30, 2004, Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Dec. 6, 2004, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; March 2, 2006, Karachi, Pakistan; Sept. 12, 2006, Damascus, Syria; Jan. 12, 2007, Athens, Greece; March 18, 2008, Sana’a, Yemen; July 9, 2008, Istanbul, Turkey; Sept. 17, 2008, Sana’a, Yemen.
I don’t recall Democrats conducting endless investigations and calling for impeachments as a result of those attacks.
If there was ever any doubt that Dick Cheney is a small, twisted, evil man, his willingness to use baldfaced lies in the service of partisan politics, and his eagerness to use the deaths of American diplomats to score cheap points would erase it.
But really, was there any doubt?
Thank you Prof K. I hope we hear more people respond like that on the national stage. IF we were a nation of laws, our former Pres & VP would be sitting at the International court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Their war of choice against a country that DID NOT ATTACK US is a stain on our nation. Many thousands of innocent lives taken and countless more devastated. Hundreds of thousand relocated….their homes lost to them. All based on lies. Thousands of Americans killed and tens of thousands broken for life. The financial cost to our country and theirs has yet to be fully calculated. The outrage of these Chicken Hawks about today’s events is pure nonsense and theater…. Racism & Hatred. If Rep Boehner REALLY wants to see some people in jail, I have some suggestions for him.
This statement comes from a man who shot his friend in the face while drinking during a hunting trip and didn’t call for help – he assumed the property owner would make the call. Maybe, knowing this stupid remark would garner public attention, his purpose is to divert us from the 37th attempt to repeal ACA. He is a war monger who approved the “outing” of the identity of a CIA agent to retaliate for her husband’s investigatin of Iraq NOT finding evidence of nuclear weaponry and reporting the information to Bush and Cheney. Yes; I am well aware I have mentioned this subject before but believe it is important enough to remind us of the evilness Cheney is capable of. He believes Americans have short memories – come to think of it – maybe he is right; the same dangerous Repubicans keep getting elected and continue calling all forward movement in Congress to a halt. Cheney’s latest idiotic comment brings to mind the old adage, “Better to keep one’s mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and dispel all doubt.”
We know now that the man without a heart is also missing a soul.
He is a ‘dick”
Dick Cheney is a defenseless dick, but the lack of outrage shown by you and other liberals at Obama’s continuation and expansion of Bush-Cheney’s damaging foreign policies is equally as unsettling. It’s not the issue of why the diplomatic post was attacked or whether enough was done to prevent such an attack from happening that is important; it’s what our government was doing at the post that made it a target for the attack, which is precisely why the administration went to such lengths to cover up the events surrounding it.
Dick Cheney certainly doesn’t rank high on my list of ‘men to be admired’ and may indeed believe most Americans have short memories. On the other hand, my memory is healthy enough to know that only six US Ambassadors have been killed by militants since World War II. Ambassador Steven’s murder was the first such incident since 2/79 when the Ambassador to Afghanistan was killed during a rescue attempt in Kabul. Anytime a US Ambassador is killed at his/her duty station is a big deal.
He is without conscience and without a moral ethic. I’ve always believed that it was the Cheney presidency more than it was the Bush presidency–I remember that Cheney was chosen to search for a viable VP candidate for the Bush ticket–and he chose himself.
After a five-second look at Cheney, would you buy a used car from the guy, let alone trust him with the office of the vice-president? I knew we were in trouble when I first saw him. Maybe someone could tell me what they saw in Cheney that told them different information so that they actually voted twice for him and his little puppet guy.
Gary, don’t be a putz. MANY of us “other liberals” are VERY unhappy with the Obama administrations’ continuation of Bush/Cheney policies. It tells me that the Military-Industrial complex is actually running that show, not any White House administration.
Oh where to begin…
The bit about funding cuts compromising security is a lie. Multiple involved parties on both sides of the aisle across many ranks have attested to that in their Congressional testimony. I’m disappointed that you would repeat that talking point, Professor, without fact-checking yourself. Particularly in light of recent posts calling for “fact-based” arguments.
Never in my lifetime have I seen an Ambassador assassinated. And I’m certainly all ears for anybody willing to explain the last time there were such lies repeated over and over again as part of a cover up. As I’m sure you know (but have conveniently forgotten), the cover up is ALWAYS worse than the initial crime. For an administration that ran on unprecedented transparency, I’m shocked and appalled that 8 months later they haven’t even interviewed many of the witnesses (or any, that I’m aware of!) Of course, there is no defense for these horrible actions so you have to go back to history to ignore the present. In my line of work that’s what we call “being part of the problem.”
Once again these kinds of intellectually inconsistent arguments get distilled into “when party X does it it’s wrong, when party Y does it it’s for the “greater good.”