Raw Story posted the Racel Maddow show from last night with clips from Cheney’s speech and critique from General Eaton. First, there was an award for Scooter Libby – Service Before Self Award [Cheney got the Keeper of the Flame Award. Then came Mr. Contempt, Dick Cheney himself. He is unbelievably hostile. Rachel makes clear all of the inconsistencies. Then Cheney jumps on the torture bandwagon – on and on – to hold on to our “moral bearings.”
Gen. Eaton: Dick Cheney Was “Incompetent War Fighter”
National Security Network
PRESS RELEASE
October 22, 2009Today, National Security Network Senior Adviser Gen. Paul Eaton (Ret.), who served more than 30 years in the United States Army and from 2003-2004 oversaw the training of the Iraqi military, responded to Dick Cheney’s accusations on Afghanistan from last night:
“The record is clear: Dick Cheney and the Bush administration were incompetent war fighters. They ignored Afghanistan for 7 years with a crude approach to counter-insurgency warfare best illustrated by: 1. Deny it. 2. Ignore it. 3. Bomb it. While our intelligence agencies called the region the greatest threat to America, the Bush White House under-resourced our military efforts, shifted attention to Iraq, and failed to bring to justice the masterminds of September 11.“The only time Cheney and his cabal of foreign policy ‘experts’ have anything to say is when they feel compelled to protect this failed legacy. While President Obama is tasked with cleaning up the considerable mess they left behind, they continue to defend torture or rewrite a legacy of indifference on Afghanistan. Simply put, Mr. Cheney sees history throughout extremely myopic and partisan eyes.
“As one deeply invested in the Armed Forces of this country, I am grateful for the senior military commanders assigned to leading this fight and the men and women fighting on the ground. But I dismiss men like Cheney who inject partisan politics into the profound deliberations our Commander-in-Chief and commanders on the ground are having to develop a cohesive and comprehensive strategy, bringing to bear the economic and diplomatic as well as the military power, for Afghanistan — something Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld never did.
“No human endeavor can be as profound as sending a nation’s youth to war. I am very happy to see serious men and women working hard to get it right.”
Columnist David Corn says cheney is actually helping Obama. By continuing to inject himself, bush, and their record into the spotlight, it keeps the comparison in people’s minds. So instead of people looking at Obama and complaining that he hasn’t yet ended terrorism and the wars, they are reminded: Oh, yeah, he’s doing so much better than dick and george did.