David Corn: Dick Cheney, the President Will Take Your Apology Now

[babylonsister]

Dick Cheney, the President Will Take Your Apology Now

If the ex-VP still thinks Obama's soft on terror, perhaps he should consult Osama bin Laden. Oh wait, he's at the bottom of the ocean.

— By David Corn

Fri May. 6, 2011 3:00 AM PDT



Does Dick Cheney owe President Barack Obama an apology?

Ever since Obama entered the White House, the former vice president has been decrying him as a weak leader whose actions place the nation at risk. He's been the lead-singer of the Obama-is-bad-for-national-security mantra on the right. Yet in the wake of the successful raid on Osama bin Laden's suburban compound, Cheney has not rescinded his previous assaults on the president.

The ex-veep did release a statement hailing the operation as "a tremendous achievement for the military and intelligence professionals who carried out this important mission. Their tireless work since 9/11 has made this achievement possible, and enabled us to capture or kill thousands of al Qaeda terrorists and many of their leaders." (Cheney did not rush into the debate over whether enhanced interrogation techniques—or torture—had yielded the intelligence nuggets that led to Obama's comfortable whereabouts.)

Almost as an aside, in that statement, Cheney added one line about the president, "I also want to congratulate President Obama and the members of his national security team." But there was, of course, no reference to Cheney's past criticism of Obama and no recognition that Obama had, if only in this episode, performed ably as commander in chief. After all, any such acknowledgment, however slight, would undermine over two years of Cheney's Obama-bashing.

But let's roll the tape. In 2009, after Obama was in office less than a month, Cheney told Politico that there was a "high probability" that terrorists would attempt a nuclear or biological attack in the coming years and that, thanks to Obama's policies, the odds were better that such an assault would succeed. He also said, "When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry."

This was no hint: Cheney was accusing Obama of caring more about process than the security of the American people. That was a profoundly serious charge. The former vice president was not merely engaging in a debate over Obama's national security policies; he was suggesting that his adminstration fretted more about terrorists' civil liberties than the lives of American citizens. Cheney's real charge was not that Obama was wrong (any leader can make an ill-advised policy choice), but that Obama really wasn't devoted to defending the United States. Cheney was not merely arguing about the best way to counter terrorists; he was trying to delegitimize Obama as commander in chief.

more...

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/dick-cheney-obama-osama-bin-laden-apology

[HowHasItComeToThis]

1. OH IF ONLY IT WAS DUBYA AND CHEENEY

[fatbuckel]

2. Didn`t we suffer the biggest terroristic attack in US history during his watch? I call that soft.

Or better yet , incompetent.Or complicit.

[zbdent]

3. Hey, don't let the fact that ObL is at the bottom of the ocean ...

Please, Cheney ... consult ObL ... in person, face-to-face ...

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Cheney forgot that those little people were sponsored by some deep pockets.

And his little oil meetings may have been the tipping factor. And if not the tipping factor, then the distraction that allowed this whole mess to start on 9/11. I think it's incompetence of leadership that let it happen.

"When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry."

[Kingofalldems]

5. K and R----looky here freepers!

[Ikonoklast]

6. Dead Man Walking Dick Cheney never gave two shits about most Americans.

He only cared about giving as much tax money to private contractors, and access to Iraqi oil fields to his buddies paid for in the blood of our soldiers.