Thursday, May 14, 2009

The Hail Mary Play

Dick Cheney has been touting the fact that President Obama has made the country less safe since about one month into his term. The former Vice President has made it clear that he thinks that the use of torture (that is plain English for the code words "enhanced interrogation techniques") is essential to the safety and well being of the citizens of this country. He has gone so far as to basically admit that he and former President Bush were not only aware of the torture program, but in fact green lighted the policy.

There are some who would say that his current media blitz is just Cheney's attempt to protect his legacy. There are others who would say that he is genuinely concerned about what he perceives to be a serious flaw in our national security. Cheney would probably say that he loves his country so much that he is willing to state his case regardless of the repercussions. However, I suspect that the real reason that notoriously press shy Cheney has suddenly made himself more available than a prostitute at Hunts Point is much more diabolical.

I believe that Dick Cheney goes to bed at night praying for another terrorist attack on the United States. He really see that as the only way that he will be fully vindicated. His mantra of "we kept America safe" can only fully appreciated if we are attacked again. Of course he conveniently washes over the fact that the worst terrorist attack in our history took place on his watch. In his mind, that fact is secondary to the "kept us safe" lie. He in fact repeats it so much that in his mind it's true. The 9/11 attacks weren't his fault. The fault for those attacks lays solely in the laps of the Clinton administration. In his mind the Bush administration started on 9/12/01. The discarding of the Bill of Rights, the subsequent breaking of international law, leading the country into an unwarranted war and the lies and deceptions that followed are all part of the "correct" way to run the country.

He prays that this country will suffer a devastating attack so that he will be able to say, "I told you so". He wants the country to recognize him as the ultimate patriot. He wants the American people to agree with him and say that our rights need to be sublimated in order to protect us from extremists. He wants the country to live in fear. He prays that future events will somehow vindicate him and the Bush administration in the eyes of history. He does not care what the cost in human lives may be. He does not care what the cost to the rule of law may be. He does not care what the cost to our reputation may be. He only cares about himself. There can be no other answer to someone whose current mission appears to be to undermine the current administration.

Words like treason and unpatriotic were thrown around whenever someone had the audacity to question the motives and actions of the Bush administration. It is almost comical to watch the other side of that equation. The far Right likes to wrap itself in the flag while attacking the current administration at every turn and throwing around words like secession and revolution. Dick Cheney is just the leading example of the most hypocritical element in our society. Political dissent is a critical part of our republic. It is necessary for the best ideas to come to the fore. However, Dick Cheney is not only expressing an opposing view (a view that in truth supports continued illegal activity), I believe that he is hoping that actual harm befall our nation. His legacy can only be rehabilitated by such an action and he knows it.

2 comments:

SJ said...

How can you insult the prostitutes of Hunt's Point like that? ...Even they take Sunday mornings off.

Dick Cheney? He's selling it twice on Sunday.

-SJ

Jack Jodell said...

Another outstanding and very relevant post, Michael! Dick Cheney is a perfect example of why executive power must never again be vested in a man who is paranoidal and obsessed with power and control. His is a very unstable and insecure personalty, and that is a huge defect. He is also a notorious liar. Your point of him thinking the Bush administration began on 9/12/01 is a most valid one. For that is the date their drive for total power, suppression of personal liberties, and war plans for Iraq truly got into high gear. That also conveniently lets him forget that he and Bush had received prior warning about al Qaeda from the outgoing Clinton administration, yet both ignored it altogether. Far from making this country safer, Cheney and Bush were directly responsible for 9/11, and their horrible invasion of Iraq coupled with their misconduct in handling it have all but guaranteed we will be attacked again, in vengeance. I wonder how much Halliburton, KBR, and Blackwater are kicking back to him. For that is the only logical reason for his continued warmongering and fearmongering. The man is a war criminal and should be punished accordingly, plain and simple.