Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Cheney's Attack Shields Failures

By Ivan Eland
January 12, 2010

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been railing against President Barack Obama for being weak-kneed on terrorism and failing to interdict the BVD bomber’s recent attempt to blow up a plane.

Read on.
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2 comments:

Bill from Saginaw said...

The major failure that Dick Cheney's continuous sniping attacks seek to shield from public scrutiny is of course the truth about 9/11 itself.

On that day of infamy, the United States' central military command headquarters, in the heart of nation's capital, was successfully attacked in broad daylight by a hijacked commercial airliner with no air defenses anywhere in sight - a spectacular terrorist attack carried out almost an hour after two similar hijacked planes were successfully crashed into the WTC twin towers on live national television. That, as they say, is the official government narrative.

Where was the US Air Force? Why was no one court martialed in the wake of such a debacle? Why was no one - no one - in either the military chain of command or the sprawling US intelligence agency network ever held accountable for such a fiasco?

The Bush/Cheney White House withheld from the 9/11 Commission and from Congressional Committees key requested classified records concerning air defenses, and the cooperating working relationship between US intelligence and foreign intelligence agencies in the days, weeks, and months that immediately preceded 9/11. President Bush and Vice President Cheney refused to submit sworn testimony. When eventually interviewed by 9/11 Commission investigators about their personal activities on that fateful day, Bush and Cheney insisted that they be questioned jointly, side-by-side, so Prez and Veep could refresh one another's recollections. Yo, ho, ho.

With the neocons now in temporary exile and the Dems in power, Dick Cheney constantly baits Barack Obama - calling Obama a naive, legalistic wimp, unwilling to call a war a war, afraid to use torture to keep America safe from those evil doer things that go bump in the night.

Cheney, Rove, and their Faux News colleagues do so because there is partisan utility in such demagoguery - particularly in the recurrent foreshadowing theme that whenever innocent American civilian lives next are lost (like nearly happened on Christmas Day), that blood will be exclusively on Barack Obama's hands. It certainly appears that Dick and friends can hardly wait to shout and taunt I-told-you-so.

The staggering irony here of course is that the loyal opposition Democrats inside the DC beltway (and the mainstream US media) gave George W. Bush, Cheney, George Tenet, and the rest of the GOP's national security team a complete pass regarding political accountability for the 9/11 debacle. That kid gloves gentlemens' treatment is now being repaid ten fold with a fear mongering sleaze campaign, primarily because Dick Cheney senses he can get away with it. Also, the set up provides great raw meat for the GOP's teabagger base.

Isn't it just amazing how the official narrative spun out has the Detroit underwear bomber retaliating solely in response to drone strikes in Yemen, and jihadist ideology that may have motivated the Fort Hood shooting - incidents in the global war on terror that took place just within the last few months?

Heaven forbid it might be mistaken for blowback in response to the wars, or torture, or seven years of incessant sabre rattling foreign policy directed towards the Muslim world during the Bush/Cheney watch. Mercy me, no! No cause-and-effect connection there whatsoever!

It's all Obama's blowback now, because Cheney and his partisan allies within the Pentagon and the intelligence community keep saying it's all Obama's blowback now.

In my opinion, declassifying all the withheld evidence regarding what really happened on 9/11/01, and declassifying the withheld evidence regarding Cheney's claims about how torture thwarted terrorist attacks and saved thousands of American lives, would be the most effective response that the Obama administration could take.

It's best to fight lies with truth, and dark demagoguery with candor and yes, courage.

Bill from Saginaw

Wed Jan 13, 09:01:00 PM 2010
Anonymous said...

Thankfully Obama has realized how well the Bush surge worked in Iraq. Obama has now committed more than 50.000 troops for his Afghanistan surge. Obama sent 20.000 troops to Afghanistan in 2009 and 30.000 more troops will go this year. I'm certain that he will send more troops if needed. Obama has committed more troops to Afghanistan during his first year in office than Bush did in his entire 8 years. Bravo Obama! Afghanistan will now be a success like Iraq has turned out to be.

Mon Jan 18, 07:36:00 PM 2010

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