Posted on 02/08/2007 7:56:09 AM PST by presidio9
Sometimes you wonder what planet Vice President Dick Cheney is living on.
Last month, speaking of the war in Iraq, Cheney told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in a prickly interview:
"(The) bottom line is that we've had enormous successes, and we will continue to have enormous successes. It is hard. It is difficult."
Anyone keeping up with the daily news from Baghdad knows that few people in the last few months -- especially those in the military -- are bragging about big successes to quell the violence in Iraq.
Even within the White House, Cheney seems like a man lost in his own little world.
While Cheney is making upbeat assessments of the war, President George W. Bush is giving more downbeat assessments, acknowledging that the military occupation is not going as well as he had hoped.
That is why he is asking for more troops to make a last stab at stabilizing Iraq, torn by its civil war.
The vice president has been putting his head in the sand for a long time. When he first came to power as the No. 2 leader of the U.S., he was depicted as Bush's prime minister.
After the 9-11 terrorist attacks, it appeared that Cheney was running the show until White House image managers intervened to lessen the perception that Bush was somehow not calling the shots. Cheney then lowered his profile.
His experience has obviously not improved his vision. After the first Persian Gulf War ended in March 1991, Cheney -- then serving as defense secretary in the first Bush administration -- was asked on ABC-TV why Operation Desert Storm had not gone all the way to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
He replied prophetically: "I think for us to get American military personnel involved in a civil war inside Iraq would literally be a quagmire. Once we got to Baghdad, what would we do? Who would we put in power? What kind of government? Would it be a Sunni government, a Shia government, a Kurdish government?
"Would it be secular, along the lines of the Baath party? Would it be fundamentalist Islamic?" he asked. "I do not think the United States wants to have U.S. military forces accept casualties and accept responsibility of trying to govern Iraq. It makes no sense at all."
So what happened to all those wise observations on the way to the U.S. invasion in 2003?
Well, a lot of things apparently occurred in Cheney's life that must have made him lose the perspective formed in his earlier days, when he started his government career as an obscure, mild chief of staff for President Gerald Ford.
Before that, he managed to avoid the Vietnam War, which he supported. Given five draft deferments, he explained to the Washington Post in a 1989 interview that "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service."
During his six terms as a Wyoming congressman, starting in 1979, he touted his conservative credentials so much that he voted several times against Head Start, the federal program for poverty-stricken preschool children.
He went to the Pentagon as secretary of defense in 1989. Some officials who worked closely with him in his previous incarnations say he has changed. Former national security affairs adviser Brent Scowcroft has said he doesn't know him now.
It's probably because Cheney was one of the original neo-conservative signers of the Project for A New American Century -- a blueprint published in 1997 for the United State to dominate the Middle East politically and militarily in the aftermath of the Cold War.
Cheney has been a lightning rod for many of the ills in this administration. Early on, he built the stonewall of secrecy by refusing to identify members of his energy task force. He also is Bush's strongest backer in sidestepping the law and empowering his role as commander-in-chief.
Cheney's name has cropped up often in the perjury trial of his former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in connection with the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame.
Despite his access to top government secrets, how many times can you be wrong?
Remember last year when Cheney said the Iraq insurgents were in their last throes of resistance? And remember earlier when Cheney knew where Saddam Hussein had stored all those non-existent nuclear weapons?
No wonder no one is listening to him any more. Time has passed him by.
I suppose it does but so what. I think no one is better equipped to know what being feminine is all about than a woman just like men are better equipped to understand what really being masculine is all about. Sure the opposite sexes have their views and ideas about it but as for really understanding it and feeling it...you have to be one to know.
But really, it's not worth getting into it...I think I've already devoted too much time to this silly subject. I will not be changing anyone's mind about i, and I don't even ant to. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter....plus everyone is entitled to have their own opinion on the subject...and I'll just agree to disagree about it.
As for the ture subject matter - Helen Thomas - like I said before: she's an idiot from Hell. (And I adore Dick Cheney)
Have a good day! :)
darn right!
that is still one of the best taglines ever!
Thanks for the ping! If only all our leaders were as wise, level-headed and had an ounce of the pounds of common sense our beloved VP Cheney has (including the POTUS)!
Plus, he ROCKS!
That may be true but I just despise these tattoos women are sporting these days, how attractive will that be when your a grandmother. (Hey Grandma, do you ride a Harley?)
Um, since when did Western women accept the male definition of what is masculine? Isn't that what the conflict w/ Islam is all about? Western women are viewed as whores by that very masculine society (as defined by the men, as consistent w/ your professed belief).
Oh, I know. You want to define both sides of the argument to your advantage whenever it suits you and they don't have to be consistent, just convenient.
I think that's what got us to this point, isn't it?
"In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter...."
Which is why you responded in the first place, right? Get your opinion in and then declare the whole point moot anyway. I know the drill.
Get your burka ready...
Oh, my!
I have to go turn the thermostat down, now :-).
Well better that then more then a touch of the stupid since the point was NOT about looking at Jessica Alba pictures but of having to look at bunch of NOT Jessica Alba pictures. BTW, ODD is it not that Google works ONE way for you and a completely different way for me? Would suggest someone here is lying since when I go to Google and do an imagine search those pictures are no where to be seen in the 1st 10 pages
I'm no computer genius, but it probably has something to do with how our filters are defined, rather than anyone lying. I just did the search again, and got the same result: nothing but Alba for the first five or six pages (though the pictures themselves were somewhat changed -tattoo pic is now on page two).
Gross. Did you have an unusually close relationship with your grandfather or something?
Sigh.
Is it Monday where you live, or something?
Right is just Google just magically works one way for you and a different way for everyone else.
So what the next line? That you meant Yahoo not Google?
Remember the old Steve Martin movie, "The Jerk"?
"Hey, there's my name under the J's!"
I think you are being way too defensive about something that was intended as a joke. The being said, try adjusting the filters on your Google search, and notice that your results will be dramatically different. This works for everyone, not just me.
..he's on a planet where he could become the most powerful man--if he chooses run...
I just saying, I think A Barbarba Bush is hot. Just not the one who looks like the Quaker Oats guy...
How would Helen know?
She still thinks we'll never Baghdad and there will never be free democratic elections held in Iraq.
I'm attracted to distinguished older men with good character and impressive accomplishments. Fortunately, I'm married to one!
There's a line from "Big Daddy" that springs to mind, but I won't use it here, because then you'll think I'm having a bad day again. I'm not. It's all good.
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