Thanks to the Daily Kos, Olberman, Maddow, the Huffington Post among others, I can remain current on Cheney, Rove, Gingrich, Rush, etc. without ever having to sit through their misinformation. For that I am very grateful.
Laying on the sofa channel surfing I came across Cheney being introduced at the National Press Club. I thought I should listen to him myself and not rely on others. I hope you will follow me below to read my observations and opinions on what he had to say. I think they are shared by many here.
(Beginner's disclaimer, this is my first diary. If I misunderstood the rules and broken protocol it is unintentional)
He says it would be a bad precedent to investigate. I say no, Cheney knew what he was doing was illegal and he should be held account.
He is discussing Gerald Ford. I am afraid he is going to compare himself and Bush as like him. Bush and Cheney are nothing like President Ford. He speaks if he has put his country first as President Ford did, but he hasn’t. He never put his country first has he demonstrated with fiver deferments from active duty. He has put himself and his cronies first. He states he does not want an investigation into torture but he wants documents released. I have to wonder if he heard Senator Leahy’s account of what was in these documents. If he (Obama) wanted to, with the stroke of a pen, can declassify those documents. That statement points to Cheney’s willingness to not consider the consequences of what he would do. Acts first thinks later.
He blames Tenet with why we went to war, an Iraq/Al Queda link. He feels no regret or remorse because he was dealing the "the aftermath of 9/11". I’ve got news for him, we are still in the aftermath of 9/11. Despite all that President Obama has done in so far we remain in a worse place than we could have been had we had brave men in the White House on 9/11. Men not terrified that a plane was heading for them and panicking would have been nice.
Now we have to listen to him threaten us with 19 men in the middle of a major American city with nuclear weapons. Well, Mr. Cheney if you do not think the men and women who have taken it upon themselves to protect this country can’t do the best job possible the responsibility for that lies at your feet. Your policies, the same ones you defend today, are why we lost our moral standing and trust among the nations of the world and made the job significantly more difficult. After Valeria Plame they had to exhibit even more courage to their job and that was thanks to you.
You wish you could have done more about the N. Korean threat. Isn’t that nice, what would more mean to you? Invading them as well?
He then compares the "detainees" to Haitian refugees. Why does it surprise him that people who were tortured and held against their will away from their families with little or no contact with the outside world by the United States would want to see some retribution? He seems to believe there are only two options for enemies you capture during a war, Guantomino or death. Now he mentions the option of "Prisoner of War". Where was that idea 8 years ago? Maybe somebody did think of it but then the Geneva Convention would probably have applied to them.
The question was to why should we accept his belief waterboarding is not torture vs McCain’s belief, who has served in the military and has been tortured, that waterboarding is torture. It the Justice Department’s fault, naturally. The arguments they were able to write. Well, I have to wonder how many of those lawyers have been in the military? I believe if they had they wouldn’t have been so quick to write those memos.
Now you have to espouse your opinion on the General Motors bankruptcy and tell of all the concern you have.
Well, at this point Mr. Cheney, I just can’t listen to your concerns any longer. Your concerns have no value. You have demonstrated to us that your concerns are not my concerns. Your concerns now seem to be in defending yourself. As I’m certain you have said yourself many times, if no wrong was done than why not have an investigation. Mr. Cheney, we simply want the opportunity to exonerate you and show the world that you were great. A great what? Well let us leave that to the investigation.