The Cheney Echo Chamber
If the stock markets succumb to a long bear market, there's always somebody who will say the stock market will go up tomorrow. They'll say it day after day and sooner or later the day comes when they're right and there are fools who think such people are prophets. The book racks and tabloids are full of people who were right once.
So let's consider the echo coming out of Dick Cheney as reported in Bloomberg (hat tip to The Huffington Post):
Well, yes, there will come a day, maybe this year, maybe next year, maybe the year after, when Dick Cheney will be 'correct' and sure enough the insurgency will be in its 'last throes.' And no doubt, any number of right wingers will crow that he was right. It's an insane way to run a government and to discuss policy.
And then look at that phrase that Cheney used that has become a favorite of incompetent Bush Administration officials: "I don't think anybody anticipated ...." Actually, any number of experts anticipated the violence in Iraq and anticipated a number of other problems that Bush officials chose to ignore. We keep hearing other excuse-making phrases such as."Who could have known...." or "We never imagined...." or, to paraphrase, "If so, that was information lost in the bowels..." It goes on and on.
Cheney and Bush know their Iraq policy is a failure. They know there will be no new 'empire,' whatever that was about. They know ousting Saddam Hussein has led to a government not much different than an Islamic Republic which is not exactly what they were aiming for. They know that the war in Iraq is a half-assed way to fight terrorism, though they will do their best to use it as a talking point with the few Americans left who are still susceptible to the con. They know that the best they can hope for is cleaning up Bush's mess, though surely they will expend enormous time and resources to find some way to spin their failures.
What they will not admit is that the war in Iraq has cost the United States a great deal more than it will ever get out of it. They will not admit the Iraq war has damaged our credibility in the world or that it will take time to repair our military. They will not admit that events are beginning to move very rapidly in the world and, since we are tied down in Iraq, we are in no position to deal effectively with those events which include new alliances, a fading of democracy in key places in the world, a scrambling for new energy sources and a United States that increasingly is not taken seriously as leader of the free world. After all is said and done, even Nostradamus is more plausible these days than Dick Cheney.
So let's consider the echo coming out of Dick Cheney as reported in Bloomberg (hat tip to The Huffington Post):
Vice President Dick Cheney said that while the administration underestimated the strength of anti- American violence in Iraq, he still believes the insurgency is in its ``last throes,'' as he asserted last year.
``I don't think anybody anticipated the level of violence we encountered,'' Cheney said in a question-and-answer session following a speech today at the National Press Club in Washington.
Well, yes, there will come a day, maybe this year, maybe next year, maybe the year after, when Dick Cheney will be 'correct' and sure enough the insurgency will be in its 'last throes.' And no doubt, any number of right wingers will crow that he was right. It's an insane way to run a government and to discuss policy.
And then look at that phrase that Cheney used that has become a favorite of incompetent Bush Administration officials: "I don't think anybody anticipated ...." Actually, any number of experts anticipated the violence in Iraq and anticipated a number of other problems that Bush officials chose to ignore. We keep hearing other excuse-making phrases such as."Who could have known...." or "We never imagined...." or, to paraphrase, "If so, that was information lost in the bowels..." It goes on and on.
Cheney and Bush know their Iraq policy is a failure. They know there will be no new 'empire,' whatever that was about. They know ousting Saddam Hussein has led to a government not much different than an Islamic Republic which is not exactly what they were aiming for. They know that the war in Iraq is a half-assed way to fight terrorism, though they will do their best to use it as a talking point with the few Americans left who are still susceptible to the con. They know that the best they can hope for is cleaning up Bush's mess, though surely they will expend enormous time and resources to find some way to spin their failures.
What they will not admit is that the war in Iraq has cost the United States a great deal more than it will ever get out of it. They will not admit the Iraq war has damaged our credibility in the world or that it will take time to repair our military. They will not admit that events are beginning to move very rapidly in the world and, since we are tied down in Iraq, we are in no position to deal effectively with those events which include new alliances, a fading of democracy in key places in the world, a scrambling for new energy sources and a United States that increasingly is not taken seriously as leader of the free world. After all is said and done, even Nostradamus is more plausible these days than Dick Cheney.
posted by Craig at 3:49 PM
1 Comments:
Cheney's ability to grasp and make sense of reality is what's in the final throes here.
However, the right-wing noise machine is doing exactly what the Democrats ought to be doing: turning out in force to say "here here" and back their guy.
Would that after Karl Rove bloviated in New Hampshire about Democrats not being around for the last battle, Democrats on Capitol Hill — every last one of them — had walked out of Congress, down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, to demand an apology.
People notice and respect solidarity, even sometimes when they're not that well up on what it's all about.
Post a Comment
<< Home