Atlanta cartoonist Mike Luckovich compared him to the murderous tyrant Moammar Gadhafi – whom he describes as “an international pariah accused of war crimes and removed from power.”
Liberal radio host Mike Papantonio – according to reports, since few actually probably heard it – recently said movie cannibal Hannibal Lecter had more respectability.
The left’s vitriol for former Vice President Dick Cheney is putrid, hateful and wholly irrational. Luckovich’s suggestion that a U.S. vice president who, in his view, went too far to protect Americans from terrorists is somehow comparable to a man who no doubt helped bring down Pan Am Flight 103 and kill 270 innocent people – well, it’s repugnant and detached from reality.
And it apparently speaks for many on the left.
Dick Cheney served in four presidential administrations, and most importantly was a rock-solid confidante and soldier for President George W. Bush after the 9-11 attacks. Mr. Cheney’s strong leadership helped America avoid another foreign-launched attack on American soil and helped protect your backside whether you appreciate it or not.
The enhanced interrogation of key terrorists, which many believe helped not only prevent other attacks and save lives but also helped lead to the killing of Osama bin Laden, was a policy that was vetted by White House counsel and approved by the highest levels of this nation’s government. The much-debated method of waterboarding, whatever you think of it, resulted in no injuries or deaths. Yeah, a real mass killer, that Cheney.
We can’t think of anyone we’d rather have had in the vice president’s chair on Sept. 11, 2001. Dick Cheney is a patriot and a warrior, and we want him to know that the toxic bile of the far-left does not speak for America on his legacy, now being freshly debated with the release of his memoir.
The man has had an unending series of heart problems dating to before his entering politics as a congressman from Wyoming in the 1970s.
But we’d take his heart over the dubious ones that beat in his loony critics’ chests.
How could any person defend this man war crimes? President Bush has his limits with it.
Seriously? Looks to me like moral relativism is no longer the exclusive purview of the left.
(D)ougk,
We agree on this one.
Believe it or not, I find "ad hominem" attacks unseemly, as a matter of principle, and counterproductive in the long-haul, as a matter of practice.
However, I really have to work to resist the temptation to criticize a person like Cheney in a manner I usually find untoward.
But I just remember what my Pap taught a little boy over sixty years ago, "If you don't have anything nice to say about somebody, don't say anything about him."
Y'all have a GREAT DAY.
This type of criticism from the radical left is the reson more people lookingat them "being cute with no substance." Dick Chaney has served thus country from so many executive positions would have been personally better off by not doing so are rare individuals. His first heart attack was in his 30s which means for the next 30 years plus he accepted assignment where the stress from any single job could have killed him. At any time he could have retired to hi Woming home and did the fishing and hunting he loved so much. Yes, he make many tough decisions that could and did result in controversity.
I have a way of measuring the character and commitment of individuals I get involved with. "How would I feel being caught in a burning building with this individual. Would he run over me trying to escape or would he nit leave without me?" I would not fear being caught in a burning building with Dick Chaney.
Since even many members of the the Bush administration are upset with Cheney, this editorial seems a bit one-sided.
History will conclude that two of the greatest men from this period were Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld. These two brilliant men have given more of their lives, produced greater benefits for their Country, and suffered greater personal attack from their political opposition than any other men in the past sixty years.
America's external enemies knew the brilliance of these men and they also knew their mettle and their resolve. Together, in various positions, working for various Presidents, these men of steel saw America through some of her darkest days while enduring ruthless, relentless personal attacks from the American left. There is no way to tell how many millions of American lives have been saved by these two great men and no way for me to express the disgust I feel for those who poked them in the eye for saving them.
Dick Cheney is an American treasure and so is Don Rumsfeld. Americans owe them their respect and their thanks. Lefties also owe them (and their families) deep, sincere apologies.
Recently, it has been other cabinet members of the Bush adminstration, not lefties, putting the hate out on Dick Chaney. Once again, ACES is barking up the wrong tree.....
I suggest we raise a fund for charity. The AC staff will agree to be waterboarded. We'll keep at it and keep telling them to admit they are terrorists. If they can withstand 2 hours without an admission, we'll give all the money to the charity of their choice. Since it's not torture and can't result in injury or death, I'm sure they'll be happy to volunteer.
It must not be too bad as the military water boards trainees as well as the gas chamber. So is the argument that the our military services are torturing our soldiers???
If I had to guess, I think the left hates him because he advocated water boarding and the (almost) abolition of the 4th Amendment. Heck, I'm *not* a liberal and I dislike him for the wiretapping/Patriot Act crap.
When I think of Dick Cheney, why does Spiro Agnew's face keep popping up?
***When I think of Dick Cheney, why does Spiro Agnew's face keep popping up?***
Possibly too many drugs, or maybe just too much time hanging around other left-wing nattering nabobs of negativism in the teachers' lounge.
***It must not be too bad as the military water boards trainees as well as the gas chamber. So is the argument that the our military services are torturing our soldiers???***
There really isn't any "argument."
It's more a "feeling." You know how these liberals "feel" everything, don't you?
No logic, no reason.....they hate Cheney and that's all that matters.
I guess Colin Powell and Condolezza Rice are liberals now?? The Chronicle would defend the devil himself if he were Republican...
MSNBC displayed Cheney breathing and inserted a gasping sound as if he were a dying man. That was simply low down.
It's interesting the hate he generates. DougK mentions Haliburton above. I, too, suggest everyone read what Haliburton is all about. They charged lots for fuel and other things in wartime Iraq I don't deny. But it cost a lot to get things to the soldiers in a warzone. American civilian truck drivers were paid $100,000 a year. There simply was nothing to the charges of price gouging. It's been thoroughly dissected.
Colin Powell and Condolezza Rice may well be liberals, depending on your own philosophy. Actually, in my view they are, but I recognize others view them differently. But, that's another issue.
Cheney has written his history of what happened. Obviously, he wrote it from his perspective. I've watched him interviewed at least four times and he's very up front about doing his best to describe things as HE saw them. Certainly, Powell and Rice have the perfect right and their freedom to give their own viewpoints on what happened.
I'm amused, but surely not surprised, to see the vitriol and the juvenile attacks on Cheney for writing a book describing his own "Time" in government. A dying man who has given most of his life to his Country gets no rest from the relentless, hateful left.
I think he really is dying, Riverman. Even by his own admission. He might be saved by a heart transplant, or he might not. He's now kept alive by an external pump he'd die without. He showed off the battery packs, the pump, and most of the plumbing in one of the interviews I watched.
Riverman1 mentions Haliburton.
Most people don't know (and don't want to know) the difficulty involved in fighting a war half way around the world from home. It's not like you just fly a bunch of soldiers over there and fight a war. The Army must be transported, with all its equipment and supplies ready and all of it must available for use immediately when needed, where needed, wherever the Army moves. Ammunition, fuel, clothing, water, toothpaste, food, medicine, bandages, you name it....when they need it, they need it NOW.
The Army is not capable of doing all that for itself. It would require too many soldiers and cost too much money. We have decided, as a Nation, to provide most of our Army's logistical support via contractors. There are only a couple who are capable of providing such support reliably and on a very short fuze. Haliburton is one of them. If you think it's easy to support several hundred thousand men and women involved in such an undertaking you haven't thought enough about it.
Let me assure you that is the case with 99.9999% of the critics who don't know and don't care because it's all a handy issue with which to smear the "Haliburton" and the former Vice President.
So Cheney doesn't like the CIA's reports on Iraq because they give no substance to His and other's support for WAR. Well here comes Rummy with his own 'military intelligence' that WILL support an invasion of Iraq. This new intelligence is not 'vetted' before being pushed upstream to Chency and the president. Now there is the way you manipulate information for your own purposes... create it YOURSELF. Anyone who doesn't think their is a terrible 'stink' from those who walked us into WAR need to pull their heads out of the sand.
Harley, the one big point you made that bears repeating is there are only a couple of companies in the world capable of handling those kinds of logistics on short notice, which is why it has been practice through several adminsitrations to "no-bid" the contracts to do it. I know for a fact that Clinton did it as well.
The only "stink" comes from those too stupid, or too beholden to a political agenda that ignores things like facts and truth when deciding which positions to take.
In addition to "logistics," most lefties are willfully ignorant of "intelligence," either the strategic or tactical kind.
Vito45, you're correct.
Military procurement regulations recognize that it time of war you often don't have the luxury of time for a competitive bidding and qualification process to get vital contracts in place. There are tiny numbers of companies who are big enough, experienced enough, and diversified enough to ramp up their operations virtually overnight and on the other side of the globe to provide support needed to fight a war. You don't want to lose the war in the first weeks because you don't have the equipment or supplies necessary to support an Army on the move, or one in the middle of enemy territory.
It's a monumental undertaking and instead of demonizing companies like Haliburton, we should be thanking them and congratulating them for doing such a fine job.
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