1 Boring Old Man

Cheney on the Warpath Again?
By Dan Froomkin

Vice President Cheney went on right-wing talk radio yesterday with a dramatic new argument for preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons, casting the Iranian leadership as apocalyptic zealots who yearn for a nuclear conflagration. Cheney also notably refused to comment about any recent conversations he may have had with Israeli leaders about the possibility of their bombing Iranian nuclear facilities. Some observers suspect Cheney of encouraging Israel to attack Iran as a proxy…

Here he is talking to Sean Hannity:

…But Ahmadinejad is I think a very dangerous man. On the one hand, he has repeatedly stated that he wants to destroy Israel. He also has — is a man who believes in the return of the 12th Imam; and that the highest honor that can befall a man is that he should die a martyr in facilitating the return of the 12th Imam. It’s a radical, radical point of view. Bernard Lewis once said, mutual assured destruction in the Soviet-U.S. relationship in the Cold War meant deterrence, but mutual assured destruction with Ahmadinejad is an incentive. You have to be concerned about that."

The 12th Imam? What’s that about? Just over two hours later, Hugh Hewitt was happy to indulge Cheney on that very issue:
"… a return of the 12th Imam is something to be much desired, and that the best contribution that a man can make is to die a martyr facilitating that return, and all that goes with it – I always think of Bernard Lewis, who said that mutual assured destruction during the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviets meant peace and stability and deterrence, but mutual assured destruction in the hands of Ahmadinejad may just be an incentive. It’s a worrisome proposition."

HANNITY: If we pull out too early, what do you believe the consequences would be? […]

CHENEY: For us to walk away from Iraq I think would have at least that bad an effect, probably worse, because if al Qaeda were to take over big parts of Iraq, among other things, they would acquire control of a significant oil resource. Iraq has almost 100 billion barrel reserves, producing 2.5-3 million barrels of oil a day. If you take a terrorist organization like al Qaeda and give it that kind of revenue, there’s no telling the amount of trouble they could get into.

What makes this so frightening is that in spite of their low approval ratings, and in spite of their not controlling Congress anymore, and in spite of the fact that they’ve almost bankrupted us with their endless warrioring, if Dick Cheney is as crazy as he sounds here, we’re not yet far enough out of the woods to keep him from attacking Iran before leaving office. He is a paranoid apocolyptic crackpot of the first magnitude. It’s apparently all he can think about. At least it’s all he talks about. In his warped mind, he’s the only thing standing between the U.S. and al Qaeda controlling the world oil markets and Iran initiating a nuclear holocaust because their leader is trying to bring back some guy from the 12th century. Saddest thing is that Cheney is way crazier than any of the people he’s talking about. The Vice President of the United States is on sensational talk radio sounding like someone being admitted to the ward of a Psychiatric Hospital. The criteria for such an admission are that a person is [1] mentally ill and [2] dangerous to himself or others. He’s there…