Dick Cheney Never Disappoints

Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the christening ceremony of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) Nov. 9, 2013, at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. The Gerald R. Ford was the first Ford-class aircraft carrier to join the fleet in 2016. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Peter D. Lawlor/Released)

by Jim Lobe

Previewing his September 8 address on the Iran deal to (who else?) the American Enterprise Institute, Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz have published a lengthy op-ed (“Restoring American Exceptionalism”) in Saturday’s print edition of The Wall Street Journal. It’s predictably over the top, apocalyptic, and entirely Manichean in word and spirit. Appeasement, Chamberlain, Hitler, Hiroshima, Nagasakiit’s all there. It will no doubt be required reading for speechwriters of all of the Republican presidential candidates.

One phrase, however, really jumped out at me: “Nearly everything the president has told us about his Iranian agreement is false.”

The reason it made such an impression is that I remembered that it was almost exactly 12 years ago that Cheney formally launched the Bush administration’s well-orchestrated campaign to intimidate Congress (especially Democrats) into approving the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) resolution that led to the invasion and occupation of Iraq seven months later. In fact it was exactly 12 years and three days ago that he spoke to the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in Nashville. A couple of excerpts seem particularly pertinent under the circumstances.

The Iraqi regime has in fact been very busy enhancing its capabilities in the field of chemical and biological agents. And they continue to pursue the nuclear program they began so many years ago. These are not weapons for the purpose of defending Iraq; these are offensive weapons for the purpose of inflicting death on a massive scale, developed so that Saddam can hold the threat over the head of anyone he chooses, in his own region or beyond.

…But we now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Among other sources, we’ve gotten this from the firsthand testimony of defectors — including Saddam’s own son-in-law, who was subsequently murdered at Saddam’s direction. Many of us are convinced that Saddam will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon.

Who knows if Cheney knew or had reason to know that those statements were false at the time that he spoke them. But, in light of the disastrous consequences that followed those particular falsehoods, our former vice president really needs to exercise more care in hurling such accusations, at least so close to key anniversaries.

Jim Lobe

Jim Lobe served for some 30 years as the Washington DC bureau chief for Inter Press Service and is best known for his coverage of U.S. foreign policy and the influence of the neoconservative movement.

SHOW 10 COMMENTS

10 Comments

  1. Dick Cheney indeed was one of the key players in the effort to dupe the American people into backing the idiotic invasion of Iraq in 2003.

  2. Dick Cheney, like so many other members of W’s regime, is a war criminal, so the lying is small change to him.

  3. Dick Cheney is a war criminal and he ought to be prosecuted by the international court and imprisoned if convicted!

  4. No doubt Dick Cheney is not stupid or an emotionally motivated ideologue. He ,his boss and their monitors were in pursuit of “American Interest” with a certain definition and in a particular way. They achieved what they wanted most successfully. Iraq, Afghanistan, “Arab Spring” , supporting backward regimes like that of Saudi’s and other Sheikhdoms…..
    Such people are still at work today even stronger than those days. They lie , falsify intelligence reports, use media manipulation, pay for favourable journalism, give political support to various lobbies and pressure groups….. to fool the public and reach their destination in their own way.
    They want a small minority of top Americans to rule the world for their own benefit. Is it true to say that what is good for that small top minority is good for America and all Americans ? Experience has shown time and again that it is not true , but it seems that the American media and its journalists are successful in convincing American public that whatever that top minority decides and does is good for America and all Americans. Not even the elected representatives of the people are allowed to think and make up their minds freely. They have to stay in line or they will lose their political position and future, and that is a lot to lose !!
    There is something fundamentally wrong with American democracy – election campaign expenses,lobbyings , pressure groups, journalism, systems of cheques and controls…..

Comments are closed.