And then he went fishing...
The audacity of Dick Cheney never ceases to amaze me.
The other morning, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, ABC’s Good Morning America aired an interview with Cheney on the war. During the segment, Cheney flatly told White House correspondent Martha Raddatz that he doesn’t care about the American public’s views on the war:
CHENEY: On the security front, I think there’s a general consensus that we’ve made major progress, that the surge has worked. That’s been a major success.
RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting. They’re looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives.
CHENEY: So? <sinister smirk>
RADDATZ So? You don’t care what the American people think?
CHENEY: No, I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls..........
“Fluctuations in public opinion polls” my aunt fanny…it's been a pretty consistent drumbeat over the last 2-3 years that two-thirds of Americans think this war has been a colossal failure.
Cheney has won elections by talking about protecting life, but when a reporter asks him about the soldiers who have given their lives to the war he helped start, he barely bats an eye. “So?” he says.
Let us not forget that Cheney was deferred from military service five times during Vietnam.
Cheney doesn't even try to hide that he doesn’t give a flying fig what we the people think.
Maybe because his Halliburton stock is up over 3000 percent since he lied us into that war? Cheney and the Corporate Elite War Profiteers are now richer than ever.
Words can’t begin to describe my contempt for the man. Some people compare him to Dan Quayle, as being one of the worst VP's we've ever had. I don't agree, Quayle was not very bright, but he wasn't evil.
Anyway...Cheney went on to say:
"Think about what would have happened if Abraham Lincoln had paid attention to polls, if they had had polls during the Civil War. He never would have succeeded if he hadn’t had a clear objective, a vision for where he wanted to go, and he was willing to withstand the slings and arrows of the political wars in order to get there."
This is so infuriating I’m not sure where to start. Comparing himself and George Bush to Abraham Lincoln makes my skin crawl.
This Administration has been utterly incompetent in Iraq, everyone says so. And there is no comparison to the Civil War. The two wars have absolutely nothing in common strategically, tactically, culturally, politically...any way you can think of.
You wouldn't think Cheney would draw our attention to Lincoln having a clear objective in the Civil War when this White House has NEVER had a clear objective in Iraq. NEVER had a clear vision. They've flip-flopped so many times about why we're there and what we're trying to accomplish.
Of course, he couldn't tell Martha Raddatz the truth---that the invasion and occupation of Iraq were carried out primarily to establish permanent military bases so we could squat over all that lovely oil.
Oh yes, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion he went fishing... on a boat owned by the Sultan of Oman.
