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I doubt that will happen…

Posted on Monday 2 August 2010


August 2, 2010

Former State Department official Liz Cheney made some news Sunday when she told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace that her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney," remains hospitalized after undergoing heart surgery in early July. From the transcript:
    WALLACE: Liz, I got to start with you. How’s your dad? Is he still in the hospital?
    CHENEY: He is still in the hospital, but he’s doing well. He’s out of the intensive care unit and hopefully will be home later this week.
    WALLACE: Now, I mean, I read, as every American did, I guess, about this heart pump. In fact, will he be able to go back and have a good active life and fly fish and hunt?
    CHENEY: Absolutely. He’s looking at fly fishing and hunting dates for later on this year, so we’re very hopeful.
Cheney, who has suffered five heart attacks, announced July 14 that he had undergone surgery the previous week to implant a pump into his heart. Little more information had been released about his treatment and status until his daughter’s comment Sunday.
Meanwhile, on the front page, Obama was in Atlanta making a speech:

President Obama outlined the changing U.S. role in Iraq on Monday to an organization of disabled veterans, saying that beginning next month the more-than-seven-year war effort will change from a primarily military enterprise to a diplomatic one. "The hard truth is we have not seen the end of American sacrifice in Iraq," Obama told the Disabled American Veterans group in a speech in Atlanta. "But make no mistake, our commitment in Iraq is changing–from a military effort led by our troops to a civilian effort led by our diplomats. And as we mark the end of America’s combat mission in Iraq, a grateful America must pay tribute to all who served there."

His remarks began a month-long effort by the White House designed to remind American voters that Obama campaigned on a pledge to wind down the Iraq war and that he is carrying out those plans largely on schedule. The U.S. combat mission will end in Iraq at the end of the month, a milestone that comes after a steady troop drawdown since Obama took office. Some 50,000 U.S. troops are scheduled to remain in Iraq by the end of the month, the deadline Obama had set for the end of the U.S. combat mission. That means more than 90,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines have left Iraq since his inauguration.
I genuinely believe what I wrote yesterday [the truth theory: Dick Cheney’s “yet”…], that Cheney’s wish to topple Saddam Hussein arose in the first Gulf War or earlier and persisted until all the pieces he envisioned were in place a decade later when he had a more malleable Bush to contend with. In the comments to my last post both Joy and Ralph point to the dilemma for us of Cheney’s current illness [which seems fairly dire to me]. He is a human being who deserves the sympathy due to a father, a husband, a public servant, and a fellow human being. In fact, were he not so good at doing his version of public service, he could never have brought it off. The obvious problem is multi-faceted. First, the War was a disaster in all dimensions – for the US, the UK, the UN, and the world. Second, the problems of al Qaeda, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, and Israel were largely unaddressed because of the War itself. And finally, people talk about how the rest of the world views us because of it, but how about how we see ourselves? We rallied behind our leaders, waving flags, swallowing our political differences, picked up our rifles or sent our children to fight, and we were betrayed and left to deal with what we had done on our own. Dick Cheney hurt us in ways that we cannot yet fathom. Thus the dilemma.

Were he a person that I knew personally, I’m sure I would hope he gets to do some more fly fishing and hunting. I love my own retirement, because it allows me to think about whatever I want to think about whenever I want to think about it. And some of that time, I think about things I’ve done in my life – things I’m proud of, things I might have done differently, things that were just plain wrong things to have done. I don’t spend a lot of time reflecting like that, but it’s pretty important to me – making peace with my life is how I see it. And I run across some things that I understand now so much better than I did at the time. I would hope that if Dick Cheney gets to the point where he can do that kind of reflection, he’ll be free enough from his endless self-justifying and rhetoric to really see his invasion of Iraq with some perspective.

Do I want him to feel pain? Probably. But I think maybe he could say some things that might release some people from his spell – notably his daughter, maybe a lot of others. But I doubt that will happen. I can think of no instance where he’s questioned anything he’s ever done…
  1.  
    Joy
    August 3, 2010 | 8:00 AM
     

    I know belief in the afterlife is personal but I/ve read a few books about the afterlife seen by people who claim they know what happens when we die. The general theme of these books seem to say that there really isn’t a hell as it is perceived in many minds. The hell is seeing the deeds that you have done where you have done bad things and the peoples faces who have suffered because of your actions over and over again like a broken record. You see it through new eyes that hurt to watch because you no longer have the same morals or mindset but eyes that tell the truth on how you’re supposed to be. I kind of hope that’s the way it will be. I had a friend whose husband was a policeman and he committed suicide. His younger daughter was about 12 years old and she came and told my twin sister who lived next door to them that she saw her father in a dream in a theatre all by himself and he could see his kids and wife crying on the screen and he kept saying I’m so sorry. That seemed to be his punishment. I don’t think justice will ever come to Cheney in his life time but maybe it will happen in the next life if there is one.

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