Dick Cheney’s Nerve
24 February 2007 1:11 am by Taylor Marsh
Dick Cheney\’s Nerve
It takes some nerve to call Speaker Pelosi out, especially after the carnage Mr. Cheney leaves behind him. But that\’s what he did this week.
Vice President Cheney refused to back down yesterday from his assertion that
the Democratic approach to Iraq would \”validate the al-Qaeda strategy,\”
as he continued a transpacific war of words with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(D-Calif.).Speaking with ABC News during a visit to Australia, the vice president addressed
the criticism of Pelosi, who earlier this week said that Cheney\’s remarks
were \”beneath the dignity of the debate we\’re engaged in.\” She also
spoke with White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten to register her complaint.\”She accused me of questioning her patriotism,\” Cheney said. \”I
didn\’t question her patriotism. I questioned her judgment.\” … ..
\”Validate the al-Qaeda strategy\” he says. It was Dick Cheney
who helped turn our focus from Afghanistan to Iraq. I can\’t wait to see what
Dick Cheney has to say when the Taliban\’s spring offensive begins. It was Dick
Cheney who set Scooter loose on Valerie Plame, which has been conclusively proven,
even if Deadeye Dick called the shots out of reach of the law. It was Dick Cheney
who helped keep Donald Rumsfeld at the DoD while our brave soldiers died one
at a time, without body armor and in trucks that had less protection than some
of the stars showing up this Sunday at the Oscars. It was also Dick Cheney who
helped concoct a case for preemptive war out of whole cloth by using statements
that would have made a moral man ashamed. Unfortunately, Dick\’s favorite venue, Tim Russert\’s \”Meet the Press\” was more than willing to comply, but Russert has a lot of company among the corporate hack pack.
“…it’s been pretty well confirmed that (9/11 al-Qaeda hijacker
Mohammed Atta) did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of
the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months
before the attack.” – V.P. Cheney, “Meet the Press,” 12.9.01But Tim Russert was just the kick off of the campaign, however, it wasn\’t a
fluke that Dick started on MTP and took as many laps as he could on Timmy\’s
Sunday version of \”The View.\” The list of verbal crimes is long for
Deadeye Dick.“But we know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear
weapons… Many of us are convinced that Saddam will acquire nuclear weapons
fairly soon.” – Vice President Cheney, Speech to VWF’s 103rd National
Convention, 8.26.2002\”Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons
of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against
our friends, against our allies, and against us.\” – Vice President Dick
Cheney, August 26, 2002“Many of us are convinced that Saddam will acquire nuclear weapons
fairly soon … “Deliverable weapons of mass destruction in the hands
of a terror network, or a murderous dictator, or the two working together,
constitute as grave a threat as can be imagined.” -Vice President Dick
Cheney on 8.26.02Dick Cheney on “Meet the Press,” 9.8.02: “We do know, with
absolute certainty, that he is using hs procurement system to acquire the
equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon.”
(This reference is to aluminum tubes that were disputed by many intelligence
analysts.)\”…And as the President said on Tuesday night, it would take just one
vial, one canister, one crate to bring a day of horror to our nation unlike
any we have known.\” – Vice President Dick Cheney, Remarks to the Conservative
PAC, 1.30.03\”… we know he has, in fact, developed these kinds of capabilities,
chemical and biological weapons… We know he\’s reconstituted these programs
since the Gulf War. We know he\’s out trying once again to produce nuclear
weapons and we know that he has a long-standing relationship with various
terrorist groups, included the al-Qaeda organization.\” – Vice President
Dick Cheney, \”Meet the Press,\” 3.16.03“And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.”
– Vice President Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, 3.16.03
Validate al Qaeda, Cheney charges. However, no one is responsible for the terrorist
explosion around the world or making us more vulnerable to future attacks more
than Dick Cheney; him and his incompetent pal, our president. So if we\’re
talking about validating al Qaeda, let\’s say that Dick Cheney has not only validated
al Qaeda, but inspired them to new heights of villiany.
Our study yields one resounding finding: The rate of fatal terrorist attacks
around the world by jihadist groups, and the number of people killed in those
attacks, increased dramatically after the invasion of Iraq. Globally there
was a 607 percent rise in the average yearly incidence of attacks (28.3 attacks
per year before and 199.8 after) and a 237 percent rise in the fatality rate
(from 501 to 1,689 deaths per year). A large part of this rise occurred in
Iraq, the scene of almost half the global total of jihadist terrorist attacks.
But even excluding Iraq and Afghanistan—the other current jihadist hot
spot—there has been a 35 percent rise in the number of attacks, with
a 12 percent rise in fatalities. … ..The
Iraq Effect: War has Increased Terrorism Sevenfold Worldwide
I don\’t just question Dick Cheney\’s judgment. I don\’t trust any decision he makes. Mr.
Cheney has lied, manipulated and schemed against the American people, demanding
loyalty and secrecy from his staff in a country that once prided itself on integrity, honor and at least a modicum of transparency. He has championed torture and made diabolical dissembling in our democratic republic into a political art form.
He is quite simply a baffoon of a man who has made a mockery of everything decent
in this country, while using human lives to justify his horrendous appetite for power in a region he doesn\’t begin to understand. This isn\’t mere conjecture. It is now a part of history.
But Speaker Pelosi shouldn\’t be calling the president to complain. She should be calling Dick Cheney out.
