Former vice president Dick Cheney and his daughter, failed Senate candidate Liz Cheney, took to the Wall Street Journal to sharply criticize President Barack Obama on Iraq. Oh, the irony — this is coming from one of the chief engineers of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The Cheneys painted a picture of gloom and doom from the start of their op-ed: “Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many.””Too many times to count, Mr. Obama has told us he is ‘ending’ the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—as though wishing made it so. His rhetoric has now come crashing into reality.”
Cheney, who gained a lot from the war via Halliburton, said al Qaeda had already been “largely defeated” when Obama took office, thanks to the “heroic efforts” of our soldiers during the Bush administration. Um, just like the ‘Mission Accomplished’ stunt George W. Bush pulled on the air craft carrier only to watch all hell break loose shortly thereafter.
According to Dick Cheney and his daughter (who suddenly became a foreign policy expert), President Obama had one job in Iraq and that was to “negotiate an agreement to leave behind some residual American forces, training and intelligence capabilities to help secure the peace.” But “instead, he abandoned Iraq and we are watching American defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.” Wow, you would think he and George W. Bush had prevailed in Iraq and captured Osama bin Laden too. Talk about hubris.
The Cheneys slammed Obama for talking about climate change and golfing as Islamic militants were making gains on the way to Baghdad in recent days. They went deep — beyond accusing Obama of having his priorities twisted — adding he’s “willfully blind to the impact of his policies.”
They added, “despite clear evidence of the dire need for American leadership around the world, the desperation of our allies and the glee of our enemies, President Obama seems determined to leave office ensuring he has taken America down a notch. Indeed, the speed of the terrorists’ takeover of territory in Iraq has been matched only by the speed of American decline on his watch.”
I should also note that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton threw Obama under a bus during her town hall interview in CNN over his handling of the Syrian crisis. This comes as the president’s approval ratings for foreign policy have taken a hit. Still, it’s just incredulous that Dick Cheney, of all people could attack Obama on the handling of the Iraq war which he helped to engineer. According to one study, top Bush administration officials told 935 lies bout Iraq, with 48 of those attributed to Dick Cheney. Enough said.
In case you have forgotten, here’s a list of Dick Cheney’s greatest hits thanks to the Daily Kos:
- “And he [Saddam Hussein] is actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time.” (March, 2002)
- “I think it will go relatively quickly. Weeks rather than months.” (March, 2003)
- “My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.” (March, 2003)
- I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.” (July, 2005)
This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.