Fact-checking a Dick [tag]Cheney[/tag] interview with Rush [tag]Limbaugh[/tag] is an almost impossible task. The errors of fact and/or judgment occur so frequently, it’s hard to keep up.
But try we must. The embattled Vice President chatted once again with radio’s most notorious demagogue and offered the kind of doozies that only Cheney can provide. For example, nearly five years later, the VP still wants Americans to believe al Qaeda was active in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
“[R]emember Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist, al Qaeda affiliate; ran a training camp in Afghanistan for al Qaeda, then migrated — after we went into Afghanistan and shut him down there, he went to Baghdad, took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq; organized the al Qaeda operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene, and then, of course, led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June. He’s the guy who arranged the bombing of the Samarra Mosque that precipitated the sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni. This is al Qaeda operating in Iraq. And as I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq.”
Ironically, almost the exact time Cheney was repeating nonsense that was debunked years ago, the Defense Department’s Inspector General was inadvertently making Cheney look ridiculous.
Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides “all confirmed” that Hussein’s regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a declassified Defense Department report released yesterday.
As for Zarqawi, before our invasion, he wasn’t a member of al Qaeda; was a rival to bin Laden. And at the time, Zarqawi wasn’t in Iraq with Saddam’s blessing; he was operating in a part of Iraq that wasn’t under Saddam’s control. (The Senate Intelligence Committee found that Saddam “attempted, unsuccessfully, to locate and capture Zarqawi and that the regime did not have a relationship with, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi.”
If Cheney were capable of feeling shame, now would be a good time for it.
Of course, the VP was just getting started.
Cheney went on to argue that we have to stay in Iraq or our allies in the Middle East will be unhappy.
“We’ve got Musharraf in Pakistan and Karzai in Afghanistan who put their lives on the line every day, in effect, supporting our efforts to deal with the extremists and the terrorists in that part of world. If they see us bail out in Iraq, they clearly would lose confidence in our capacity to carry through and get the job done.”
Nonsense. Both Musharraf and Karzai have said publicly that they’d much prefer to see our presence in Iraq curtailed. Maybe Cheney missed the memo.
On a related note, Cheney argued it would be “very tough” to assemble allies if, in Limbaugh’s words, they think “we might just pull out in the middle of the whole thing before it’s complete.” Here’s a counter-idea: how tough will it be to assemble allies to fight by our side now?
The VP went on to argue that downplaying the “war on terror” phrase is “flawed thinking,” and Dems who prefer more precise language are “just dead wrong.” Maybe Cheney should tell the president, who has taken the opposite position.
Cheney lashed out at Speaker Pelosi, calling her trip to Syria “bad behavior,” for reasons that have already been shown to be fraudulent. He lashed out Senate Dems for “Stalinist” tactics against U.S. Ambassador to Belgium-designate Sam Fox, despite the fact that Fox’s nomination was pulled before it could even came up for a vote.
Ultimately, the whole interview was an exercise in mendacity, with Limbaugh asking absurd questions, and Cheney responding with dishonest answers. It’s probably long past the point in which this matters, but here’s a side-question that gets lost in shuffle: why is the Vice President even appearing on Limbaugh’s show in the first place?
We obviously know the answer — right-wing VP, right-wing host, right-wing audience — but we are talking about a hateful drug addict who mocks Parkinson’s patients and has a history of racism. But that doesn’t stop Cheney from being Rush’s buddy.
It’s a reminder — there is nothing a conservative can say or do to be removed from the Republican mainstream.