I think we all knew this was coming. Since the flare up of sectarian violence in Iraq, the cheerleaders and architects of the War in Iraq have taken to the airwaves and opinion pages to criticize President Obama over his decision to withdraw all troops from Iraq in 2011. (Never mind that the withdrawal agreement was signed by President Bush before Obama ever took office.) Over the past few days, we’ve seen neocon hawks such as Bill Kristol, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, Paul Wolfowitz and John Bolton step to the podium to attack the current administration for its handling of Iraq. Needless to say, they’ve all blithely dismissed their own roles in selling a disastrous war whose only outcome appeared to be chaos and disorder of the kind we are seeing.
However, the one person we hadn’t heard from yet was former Vice President Dick Cheney, the chief architect and liar when it came to the Iraq War. The wait is now over, as Cheney, along with his daughter Liz, penned an unbelievable piece of retcon tripe for the Wall Street Journal where they claimed that Obama lost the war that was already won, while at the same time positioning Dick Cheney as a hero. It is hard to imagine that one would have the audacity to write something like this, considering his own role in selling a lie and reassuring the American people that the war would only last a few weeks, yet here we are.
Right away, the Cheneys set the tone, claiming that President Obama is never right and that he is completely ineffective as a leader:
Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. Too many times to count, Mr. Obama has told us he is “ending” the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—as though wishing made it so. His rhetoric has now come crashing into reality. Watching the black-clad ISIS jihadists take territory once secured by American blood is final proof, if any were needed, that America’s enemies are not “decimated.” They are emboldened and on the march.
Of course, per Dick Cheney, he is seen as a respected statesman in Iraq, and people keep asking him why the President abandoned the Iraqi people rather than keep a ‘residual force’ in the country forever. The obvious inference here is that the Iraqi people see Cheney as a ‘liberator’ and that the President wasted all the goodwill that the United States built up with a nearly decade-long war.
On a trip to the Middle East this spring, we heard a constant refrain in capitals from the Persian Gulf to Israel, “Can you please explain what your president is doing?” “Why is he walking away?” “Why is he so blithely sacrificing the hard fought gains you secured in Iraq?” “Why is he abandoning your friends?” “Why is he doing deals with your enemies?”
In one Arab capital, a senior official pulled out a map of Syria and Iraq. Drawing an arc with his finger from Raqqa province in northern Syria to Anbar province in western Iraq, he said, “They will control this territory. Al Qaeda is building safe havens and training camps here. Don’t the Americans care?”
Just in case the point hadn’t been hammered home enough that Obama doesn’t care about Iraq or take his job as President seriously, the Cheneys toss in some 8th-grade level insults (my guess is this was Liz’s contribution to the article.)
Our president doesn’t seem to. Iraq is at risk of falling to a radical Islamic terror group and Mr. Obama is talking climate change. Terrorists take control of more territory and resources than ever before in history, and he goes golfing. He seems blithely unaware, or indifferent to the fact, that a resurgent al Qaeda presents a clear and present danger to the United States of America.
Gotta get a dig at climate change in there. Good job!
Thankfully, this display of hubris mixed with a complete lack of self-awareness shaken with a dose of heartlessness and poured into a glass of douchebaggery was not lost on others Wednesday morning. Once the Cheneys objectionable and off-putting op-ed hit the stands and net, the attacks came from all sides.
Not The Onion: Dick Cheney op ed’s subhed: “Rarely has a prez been so wrong about so much at expense of so many” http://t.co/ySKED48dNw
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) June 18, 2014
Um, why is anyone listening to Dick Cheney on ANYTHING?! #Obama #Iraq #p2 pic.twitter.com/nMozh0qKk7
— Eric Wolfson (@EricWolfson) June 18, 2014
dick cheney, who helped to kill nearly 5,000 americans, lectures obama on patriotism. have a seat, monster.
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) June 18, 2014
IDK Dick Cheney being wrong about a country having WMDS at cost of $1 trillion & 1000s of troops lives is hard to top pic.twitter.com/acbxRE9Ben
— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) June 18, 2014
Glad to see Dick Cheney collaborating with his daughter because if there’s one thing the warmongering industry benefits from is nepotism.
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) June 18, 2014
“I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.” Dick Cheney, 7/20/05
— Kaili Joy Gray (@KailiJoy) June 18, 2014
“I think it will go relatively quickly. Weeks rather than months.” Dick Cheney, 3/16/03
— Kaili Joy Gray (@KailiJoy) June 18, 2014
Like I said when Bill Kristol got smacked down by John Heliemann for suggesting that we need to send tens of thousands of troops into Iraq for an indefinite period of time — if you were one of the ones responsible for getting the US into war, then you kindly need to sit down and stay quiet. You aren’t allowed to speak on this subject. Everything going on right now is the direct result of your actions and words. At this point, you need to be happy that you aren’t being tried as a war criminal and sentenced to death due to the destruction and decades of chaos you’ve brought forth. Just go away, never to be heard from again.
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
Dick Cheney is the love-child of Darth Vader and Voldemort.
What is wrong with the two of them. Rewriting history won’t help. Cheney is responsible for thousands of innocent lives being lost and he lies, omg he lies. What makes me even more upset, is that there are people who believe him and they vote.
But according to Giuliani there were no domestic terrorist attacks in the US under Bush[/Cheney]. And since he was Mayor of NYC on 9/11/01 he would know.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/jan/08/rudy-giuliani/giuliani-says-there-were-no-domestic-attacks-durin/
His level of ignorance and arrogance is unsurpassed. When is this old b*stard going to kick the bucket?
Cheney Op-Ed: An unbelievable bunch of drivel.
Neocons know that if they keep repeating something over and over again, no matter how much of an egregious lie it is, their followers will joyfully accept it as truth. Because they are excellent at propaganda.
Any body who read my comment yesterday on the timing and content of the Reich Wings response to the capture of the Benghazi participant and Dick Cheney, should agree that Edward Casey and Nostradamus have nothing on me! Darth Vader had class! Darth Cheney is galactic SCUM!!!
Whatever idiot gave this a down vote you are one stupid ignorant fool. You don’t even have the courage to refute what he said. You must feel like a real man but like the blood gurgling chickenhawks, you are nothing but a coward and what little gray matter you have, the majority ran down your daddy’s leg
A country that had absolutely nothing to do with the attacks on 9-11-01. Brought to it’s knees over oil by the Bush/Cheney administration, bled dry by Halliburton of any sense of morality and all for the sake of Bush jr. who believed Daddy Bush should have gone after the one stabilizing, if somewhat horrible, dictator in the region. We don’t belong there. We never did. It’s territorial dispute between factions of the Muslim religion and nothing we have ever done or could ever do will change this fact. They have to fight it out amongst themselves as we did during the Civil War.
I don’t know when he will kick the bucket but as long as he gets that free government healthcare to see the best doctors we might be going through our own circle of hell for not kicking him in the nuts and rendition his wrinkled ass to the Hague
Last time Cheney was in Iraq was 2008. He hasn’t even left the country since he was found guilty of war crimes in Kuala Lumpar
http://www.globalresearch.ca/tribunal-decision-bush-cheney-rumsfeld-and-5-others-responsible-for-war-crimes/31561
Why is this man not in jail?
David Turnbole – you are absolutely correct. I have often asked defenders of Bush’s actions why we were attacked by citizens of Saudi Arabia and Bush aggressively pushes to go to war with Iraq? Answer – to avenge daddy not finishing the conflict back in 1991.
Don’t forget all the money Dick made from the war! What was it? 39.5 billion?
Dubya should have done what Bush Sr. did and left Saddam alone once he was contained. What is happening now is the reason we didn’t take him out then. Schwarzkopf and senior Bush knew this would be the outcome.
Another little known fact is the reason Saddam went into Kuwait in the first place. Saddam went into Kuwait because they had been stealing Iraqi oil for eight years while Iran and Iraq were at war. When Kuwait refused to pay for the oil they stole, Saddam invaded them.
It was, and always has been, all about oil.
But the Cheney op-ed is not just an op-ed. As I learned from Twitchy this morning, it coincides with today’s launch of a new Cheney family 501(c)(4) organization, the Alliance for a Stronger America:
http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2014/06/its-just-so-moving-to-watch-elderly-man.html#links
Since his evil spawn, liz, got canned from a cushy taxpayer paid job and failed trying to be a Senator, the lord of assholey is setting her up to grift the ignorant and billionaires so she can have an income.
Although I understood the reasoning for it at the time , all this talk by the architects of the war would not be happening if we had turned all of the convicted war criminals over to the War Crimes Tribunal. And what “Mideast trip” is he referring to, one made in 2008? If he left the country he would be subject to arrest and detention. Just more hot-air from grifters starting another PAC to suck lucre from the marks.
Who published this war criminal? Obviously, not a real news source, not even good enough to line the bird cage with or wrap fish. disgusted.
Cheney is the one person in the world that I truly wish ill upon. Not even my ex gets that honor.
I am so saddened by the senseless loss of life in Iraq that should never have happened. Their issues can’t be solved by anyone but them. They have lived and fought with each other this way forever! We should never have been there and absolutely should not go back. Dick Cheney, you don’t get to blame ANYONE else for the mess you and your friends made, so please sit down and be quiet, out of embarrassment, if nothing else.
‘Pants on Fire’ Cheney has no business saying a word about Iraq.
Cheney is evil to the core, he is a criminal and should be bought to account for war crimes.
We have not forgotten those black hole torture sites overseas, the deaths in Iraq and this bastard got richer through it.
I hope he rots in hell!
Remember those minutes from Cheney’s meeting with energy industry leaders that Cheney fought so hard to keep secret? I think it’s time they were made public.
Not only does the war criminal was wrong about Iraq he gets the flag wrong in his snake oil pitch
The flag on the new Cheney site (http://t.co/…) doesn’t meet U.S. flag specifications. The stars are huge. http://t.co/…
— @MattOrtega
You cant make this stuff up!!!!
Self-appointed vice-president chickenhawk cheney is still trying to re-write history…and it’s still not working. Macbeth couldn’t get out the blood on his hands either.
Bet you a donut carving up Iraq’s oilfields are in there
Cheney + Halliburton = Iraq War (Profits) Just look at the contracts!! Young men and women killed and wounded for his buddies wealth. History will record the truth someday. He is the most disgusting human being of this century.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCm9788Tb5g
Dick Cheney- Neocon War Profiteer
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/18/1307821/-Dick-Cheney-Neocon-War-Profiteer
Since this faction believes they are entitled to *rule*, and their punitive, exclusionary policies are alienating more and more people, don’t put it past them to attempt some openly lawless seizure of power, in which both Dominionist and Second-Amendment fanaticism are likely to figure heavily. I believe they have been stirring up both with exactly that end in view.
The “we” who went to the Mid-East might have been Liz and the mouse in her pocket. As for the aptly-named Dick, don’t rule out that he had Iraqi and Afghan prisoners typed for a match, and one shot when he needed a heart…preferably a kid, so the pump would last longer.
Cheney wilkl ALWAYS crawl out of that dark undisclosed place to attack Obama whenever matters of foreign policy is on the hot plate at the White House. Why? Because Cheney thinks he knows better. He also is angry that Obama and his people don’t consult with his sorry a$$ in these matters. The White IGNORES him and he seethes, feeling also that Obama and his people threw away his Foreign Policy playbook, as they should. He is one bitter, sinister dude.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY
He can’t re=write history quite as much as he would like.
…who was promptly adopted by Satan and tutored by him.
According to “Celebrity Networth” website, Cheney is worth over $90 million, mostly from the private sector (Halliburton).
So wait… where is the concern for our country??? Just not enough happening here to worry about I guess.. Has he forgotten about all the videos and whatnot showing how they hated us being there and wanted us out of their country?? Soldiers being attacked and beaten, spit on, blown up.. But I guess that doesn’t fit his agenda so forget that..
Please Mr. Cheney, go and take everyone who believes in your military policies for the Iraq Nation, PROCEED POST HASTE to said NATION AND FREE them from there-selves. Since it seems only you and the one you serve can save and liberate them.
I also see you have managed to turn your new heart as stone cold as your original one. Nuf said.
WOW!! being a scum bag really pays off doesn’t it? WITH THAT amount of CASH, HE WILL NEVER find himself on he inside looking out through bars. Just another slimy slippery snake that will never pay his dues.
That Reynardine is just too evil to think about even. But, on the other hand, I believe it may have been possible. After all,we are talking about rethugs aren’t we?
The Wall St. Journal. Another paper while it was conservative has turned into a rag on the op-eds under Rupert.
Is anyone sane expecting anything NOT disgusting from anyone named Cheney?
Wonder if Dick Cheney ever been tested for Rabies?
It was published by the once reputable Wall Street Journal, now a dogmatic tool of the repellent foreigner Rupert Murdoch.
Cheney, along with his clueless wife and soulless daughter, continues his attack on Obama in a desperate attempt to salvage his own damaged legacy.
Meanwhile, civilized society continues to attack the Cheney clan for abandoning our nation’s constitutionally-guaranteed right to due process, as well as the fundamental tenets of human rights.
How about outing a CIA operative in an act of retribution for her husband’s exposing the rationale behind the Iraq invasion to be a fraud perpetrated upon Congress and the American public?
Oh, and Dickie is still searching for those phantom WMDs.
This guy not human. Hes a cold blooded reptile.
Too bad Cheney’s garbage wasn’t written from a jail cell in Leavenworth.
I was wondering if this article was done for Liz’s benefit. Could there be another political run sometime in her future? She can point to this piece as proof she was published.
https://www.facebook.com/445750158828908/photos/a.446253658778558.1073741826.445750158828908/659399557463966/?type=1&theater
Please help us and tell Rep. Bradley Byrne (of Alabama) Bentley to support expanding Medicaid Please call Phone: (251) 690-2811 Phone: (251) 972-8545 phone: (202) 225-4931 fax: (202) 225-0562 or use his facebook page (let him have it) https://www.facebook.com/RepByrne
If I had the money I’d take out a full page Op Ed ad that read simply: Iraq! YOU built this sir!!
8 years was enough —- time to step off the stage. I’ll buy the paints and brush!!
I wonder if they would print it?
It was to plan post-war Iraqi oil profiteering. Rachel Maddow talks about it in her documentaries about the Iraq war.
We could send over those Americans who long salivated over the prospect of war in the Persian Gulf. Let these war-mongers and war-profiteers continue hostilities if they so wish, as long as they alone put themselves in harm’s way: GW Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Armitage, Kristol, Bolton, Libby, and all those who wanted us to sacrifice blood and treasure for the power and profit of the few.
Mr. Cheney makes it sound like he just returned from a trip to the Middle East. We all know that he and all the neocon cabal and W Bush can’t leave the country for fear that they will be arrested on the spot and hauled off to a black hole prison or sent to the Hague and prosecuted for war crimes. I hold Nancy Pelosi partly responsible for not prosecuting this a-hole in ’09. We wouldn’t have to be hearing from his sorry ass had something been done then. Also, the treason that he and Scooter Libby committed in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. How many lost their lives in foreign countries for that?
Burn in hell, indeed, Dick!
That’s the conservative “personal responsibility” they always talk about…
#DickCheneyFilms he’s getting slammed on twitter
He sure is
Yep. And they have a complicit and extremely. cooperative corporate (mainstream) media ready, willing, and able to give them all the print, broadcast, and cable time they need in order to successfully fulfill that unAmerican endeavor.
Propaganda works on the masses.
I wouldn’t hold my breath, djchefron. American media is exclusively for the use of Libertarians and Republicans. Sure, Progressives get a few crumbs of their time here and there, but the lion’s share goes to corporate America – Corporations looking out for Corporations.
President Bush’s misrepresentations to Congress to induce passage of a use of force resolution is subversive of the constitutional system of checks and balances, destructive of Congress’s sole prerogative to declare war under article I, section 8 of the Constitution, and is therefore a High Crime. An even greater offense by the President of the United States occurs in his capacity as Commander in Chief, because he knowingly placed the men and women of the United States Armed Forces in harm’s way, jeopardizing their lives and their families’ future, for reasons that to this date have not been established in fact. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/110/hres1345/text
So Dick, What say you and I go for a trip to Kuala Lumpur. I’m certain they would just love to have you for an extended stay, come on it will be fun.
War Tribunal Finds Bush, Cheney Guilty of War Crimes
Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal orders reparations be given to torture victims
– Common Dreams staff
https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/13
Well said!
I thought Cheney would never be able to top his hubris when, after holding extensive interviews with high profile people, named himself as the best candidate for Bush’s running mate.
I was wrong.
I believe that Dick Cheney lost more than a few cells with his heart transplant operation. He has forgotten the past, very conveniently.
I would have written under an assumed name, if that article was her claim to being published.
If that article was Ms Cheney’s claim to being published,I would have written it under a psuedonym.
“And there’s still those people out there who think … there’s Rumsfeld and Cheney who are literally lizards from outer space who eat human flesh.”Comedian Louis C.K.
I have no proof of their flesh-eating proclivities, but after Cheney and replicant resurfaced this week, who knows?
More snark on Cheney at http://www.fizzdom.com including:
http://www.fizzdom.com/blog//tortured-past
http://www.fizzdom.com/blog/cheney-heart-transplant (aka Parts for Farts)
http://www.fizzdom.com/blog/jon-stewart-iraq-and-permanent-bases
Nearly all of the vitriolic attacks on Mr. Cheney show ignorance of 20th Century events. In contrast to McNamara’s debacle in Vietnam, as Defense Secretary he let Generals Swartscopf and Horner run the Gulf War, with the assistance of other Arab countries, and end it promptly. One major ally, Saudi Arabia, did not want to take out Sadaam, so we had to do it later. Sadaam, his evil sons, and Baath party
followers continued to violate the terms ending the Gulf War. When,in 1933, Hitler and his Nazis were allowed to violate the Versailles treaty, World War II soon followed. By taking out Sadaam and his cohorts, World War III was averted. For this mankind, including the Islamics, owe President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, the other coalition leaders, and especially their troops a great deal of admiration, not the derision being heaped on them.
What terms did Saddam violate? SERIOUSLY WW3? Iraq couldn’t feed its own people and they was going to start WW3?
http://imageshack.com/a/img401/2966/kqio.jpg
My question is what is wrong with ALL or most of the media when they constantly invite the very trolls who got us into this horrible mess? Who gives a f… what these scumbags think. Cheney, Billy Crystal, Paul Wolfowitz, Sean Hannity and company make me ill. Ironically the only member in this torrid cabal who has maintained a dignified posture and has not come out of the woodwork to blame Obama is George Bush.
Halliburton/KBR made its money from military contracts and deaths.