Friday night, Fox News aired a special report on Iraq. It was called, “Iraq and the Rise of a Terrorist State,” but it may as well have been called, “Why We Should Blame Obama And Not Bush/Cheney For The Problems In Iraq.” Driving that point home was a friendly, image-enhancing interview with Cheney himself.
In his introduction, Chris Wallace described Cheney as “passionate in offering his critique of the Obama doctrine in fighting the war on terror.”
Wallace acknowledged he “couldn’t ignore how many feel (Cheney's) the one who got it all wrong and wrong from the start.” But much of the segment seemed designed to prove Cheney’s critics wrong and his attacks on Obama right.
For example, Wallace followed up his “wrong from the start” comment with a clip of Cheney saying, “We got intelligence that went back into the Clinton years.” Cheney did acknowledge he “obviously misjudged the situation” when he said the insurgency was in its “last throes” – just before it got worse. But no question, for example, as to how much Cheney relied on pre 9/11 intelligence to go to war in 2003. Or why, for example, Donald Rumsfeld said, "we know" where the WMDs are.
“So, what would you do now?” Wallace later asked.
Cheney then got plenty of time to expound on his solutions. Wallace challenged none of it, as if Cheney is someone whose military advice we should take seriously.
“How do you feel about bringing Iran into the discussion about Iraq?” Wallace asked.
“Bad idea,” Cheney said, in case you were wondering. And somehow, Cheney managed to segue to Obama having managed to “significantly diminish the capacity of the United States government to influence events in that part of the world.” And to claiming that everybody in the region has “lost confidence in us” and nobody in the region feels they can “count on us.”
Wallace didn’t ask who those people are that Cheney is hearing from or question how comprehensive his view really is. Instead, Wallace asked, “To what end would he want to weaken our capability?”
Cheney opined that he thinks Obama sees “a strong U.S. as disruptive to what he thinks the world ought to be.”
And how did Wallace respond to that? By asking, “Just on a personal level, when you think of all the blood and treasure that we spent in Fallujah, in Mosul, in Ramadi to see it all go back to Al Qaeda, how does it make you feel?”
You can guess the answer. But later, when asked why he’s speaking out now, Cheney let us know his motives are entirely selfless. “I am convinced that the fate of the republic is heavily involved in these issues. If I don’t speak out, I don’t know who else will. I feel that I can speak with some credibility. …I don’t need to re-engage in the political wars.”
Right.
Watch Wallace enable Cheney's image rehab below.
Feel?! How about you couldn’t ignore the FACTS that have shown that so much of the BushCo rhetoric and so many of the decisions regarding Iraq were wrong? You ARE supposed to be a news guy, right, Wallace?
Wallace sure did a nice job of setting it up so Cheney could make his points and he did a poor job of following up when Cheney’s comments should have been challenged.
No doubt the “Cheney Recovery Tour” appreciates your cooperation, Wallace. So, what show is next on the tour? Pffft.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/the-dick-and-liz-cheney-recovery-tour-108466.html
Yes. Indeed. That’s the info only Hillary in the Senate had. It was out of date, but it was clearly very high in her mind when she made that vote. Cheney knew there was later intelligence showing Saddam had destroyed all that stuff in 2003, but HRC did not.