March 31, 2009, 4:40 P.M.
Dick Cheney's remarks abroad have offered new insight into the Bush administration. Despite the near historically low approval ratings, almost global disdain for their policies and talk of international war crimes prosecution, Cheney is still trying to market the failed world view of the Bush doctrine. The problem is that, despite the overwhelming evidence of deceit, disregard for law and policy and an impressive campaign of human rights violations, Cheney continues to have a voice for his twisted world view.
During the lead-up to the Gaza offensive, Cheney told Israeli leaders that then President-elect Obama was “pro-Palestinian.” More recently, he has mocked the new administration’s foreign policy and he has questioned our national security since the election of our new President, telling CNN that he believes Obama has made our nation less secure. This from the guy who almost singlehandedly created a whole new generation of radical Islamists by invading a country which really posed no threat to us, and by dropping heavy boots on sacred ground to do it.
This guy still believes that there is viability to his hawkish, crusader views despite the total collapse of his political party and universal rejection of his philosophy. It is a wonder that Cheney travels outside of this country, given the growing drumbeat of international support for war crimes prosecution. Lest we forget, Cheney, Bush and the other major players in their administration have admitted to using torture to gain information from illegally held prisoners. That’s a war crime that, were it committed by an eastern European leader, Bush and the boys would have been frog-marched into The Hague.
Perhaps by focusing his attention on international issues, Cheney hopes to deflect attention from his domestic crimes, like Halliburton’s no-bid contracts, the outing of Valerie Plame or the political execution of US Attorneys who whose to follow the law, rather than executive fiat.
I don’t think Cheney is dumb. Quite the contrary. I also accept that he really believes what he says about national and international politics. The fact that he is in a very small minority does not seem to affect him, and that has always been the problem: a complete lack of connection to reality. This leads to his ends-justify-the-means approach and his complete lack of a moral compass.
Cheney is getting away with his antics because he is marginal. He is really inconsequential because his ideas are so far off base as to be in the lunatic fringe. There is always a chance that being so far out of touch will leave him vulnerable to attacks from those in the international (and national) arenas who are calling for his head. I don’t know that it will actually happen, but it should. He thinks his is above the law and cannot begin to recognize the damage he and his cronies have done. The irony, of course, is that if his is prosecuted, or even investigated, it is the Obama administration to whom he will be forced to beg for help. I wonder if they will remember all those nice things he said about them when that day comes.
