I realize that Dick Cheney was in the untenable position of having to defend the administration’s policy in Iraq, and I’ve come to expect a disturbing amount of mendacity in the Vice President’s remarks. But yesterday, on CBS’s Face the Nation, Cheney was in rare form. (TP has video.)
Schieffer: Mr. Vice President, all along the government has been very optimistic. You remain optimistic. But I remember when you were saying we’d be greeted as liberators, you played down the insurgency ten months ago. You said it was in its last throes. Do you believe that these optimistic statements may be one of the reasons that people seem to be more skeptical in this country about whether we ought to be in Iraq?
Cheney: No, I think it has less to do with the statements we’ve made, which I think were basically accurate and reflect reality, than it does the fact that there is a constant sort of perception if you will that’s created because what is newsworthy is the carbomb in Baghdad, it’s not all the work that went on that day in 15 other provinces in terms of making progress in rebuilding Iraq.
In other words, Cheney would prefer that we not dwell on all of the comments he made that turned out to be false, because they, as the VP sees it, “reflect reality.” Why? Because he says so, facts be damned.
In fact, while we’re at it, Cheney would prefer that we also not dwell on all of the carbombs. Or the casualties. Or the serious injuries. Or the lack of a unified Iraqi government. Or the delays in creating an independent Iraqi security force. At the core of Cheney’s perspective, Americans are frustrated and despondent about the war, not because of actual conditions in Iraq, but because the mean ol’ media keeps telling people bad news. Blaming the messenger, of course, is the last refuge of an incompetent head of state.
Wait, it got better.
Schieffer then asked Cheney to respond to a comment from Sen. Ted Kennedy, who said, “It is clearer than ever that Iraq was a war we never should have fought. The administration has been dangerously incompetent, and its Iraq policy is not worthy of the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform.” Cheney didn’t hold back.
“I think what Senator Kennedy reflects is sort of the pre-9/11 mentality about how we ought to deal with the world and that part of the world.
“We used to operate on the assumption before 9/11 that criminal attack was — a terrorist attack was a criminal act, a law enforcement problem. We were hit repeatedly in the ’90s and never responded effectively. And the terrorists came to believe not only could they strike us with impunity, but if they hit us hard enough they could change our policy, because they did in Beirut in 1983 or Mogadishu in 1993.
“We changed all that on 9/11. After they hit us and killed 3,000 of our people here at home we said enough is enough. We’re going to aggressively go after them. We’ll go after the terrorists wherever we find them. We’ll go after those states that sponsor terror. We’ll go after people who can provide them with weapons of mass destruction.”
And this relates to Iraq…why? Iraq was connected to 9/11…how? Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction that could be provided to terrorists are…where?
Cheney concluded, “I think Ted Kennedy has been wrong from the very beginning.” If this political gig doesn’t work out for Cheney — and, really, it already hasn’t — he could certainly consider a career in comedy. He may need to work on his timing, though.
