RUSH: It may not just be Iraq. Yesterday I read that Ike Skelton, who chairs -- I forget the name of the committee -- in the next defense appropriations bill for fiscal '08, is going to actually remove the phrase "global war on terror," because they don't think it's applicable. They want to refer to conflicts as individual skirmishes, but they're going to try to rid the defense appropriation bill, and thus official government language, of that term. Does that give any indication of their motivation, or what they think of the current plight in which the country finds itself?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Sure. Well, it's just flawed thinking. I like Ike Skelton. I worked closely with Ike when I was secretary of defense. He's chairman of the Armed Services Committee now. Ike's a good man. He's just dead wrong about this, though. Think about it. Just to give you one example, Rush. Remember Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist, an Al-Qaeda affiliate. He ran a training camp in Afghanistan for Al-Qaeda, then migrated after we went into Afghanistan and shut 'em down there, he went to Baghdad. He took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq, organized the Al-Qaeda operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene and then of course led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June. He's the guy who arranged the booming of the Samarra mosque that precipitated the sectarian violence between Shi'a and Sunni. This is Al-Qaeda operating in Iraq, and as I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq. There's no way you can segment out and say, "Well, we'll fight the war on terror in Pakistan or Afghanistan but we can separate Iraq. That's not really, in any way, shape, or form related." It's just dead wrong. Bin Laden has said this is the central battle in the war on terror...
That same day, the Pentagon issues a report, debunking the claim that Saddam Hussein had ties to Al-Qaeda terrorist network. Unfortunately, this is not the first time Cheney out and out lied about the link between Saddam and Al-Qaeda. A year after the president declared "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," the 9/11 Commission Report found that
the panel had no credible evidence that Saddam Hussein had assisted al-Qaeda in preparing or executing the 9/11 attacks. The Report notes in Chapter 2 that "Bin Laden had in fact been sponsoring anti-Saddam Islamists in Iraqi Kurdistan, and sought to attract them into his Islamic army."
And yet, Cheney is still lying about the debunked link, and lied about it again on Limbaugh's show.
What's even more amazing are the levels of blatant hypocrisy coming from the mouth of Cheney and the right-wing water carriers about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria.
RUSH: A couple of quick more things before you have to go. What's the administration's view today, what's the emotion, what are you thinking about Speaker Pelosi's trip to the Middle East, specifically the conveyance of the incorrect message to Bashar Assad in Syria about peace talks with Israel?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, it's not helpful. I made it clear earlier that I thought this created difficulties, if I can put it in a gentle form. Obviously, she's the speaker of the House and ought to travel to foreign nations and ought to conduct visits.
RUSH: She's not entitled to make her own foreign policy, is she?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: She's not entitled to make policy. She, in this particular case, by going to Damascus at this stage it serves to reinforce, if you will, and reward Bashar Assad for his bad behavior. He's done all kinds of things that are not in the interests of the United States, including allowing Syria to be an area from which attacks are launched against our people inside Iraq. He obviously was heavily involved, right now, in supporting an effort by Hezbollah to try to topple the government in Lebanon. This is a bad actor, and until he changes his behavior he should not be rewarded about visits by the speaker of the House of Representatives.
Oddly enough, neither Cheney, nor Rush dare spoke of the three Republican Senators who visited Syria and talked to President Assad, just like Pelosi did.
And yet, with all the evidence of the lies and hypocrisy coming from Cheney's mouth, that minority still defend the Administration's load of bullshit, lies, and spin.
5 comments:
The worst thing is that all three of those gripes are unfounded. It was Donald Rumsfeld (remember him? Cheney doesn't) who came up with the idea of using a different name to refer to the War on Terror, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi did not join al-Qaeda until a year after the invasion, and Nancy Pelosi did not deviate from official White House foreign policy a single time during her trip.
The worst thing is that all three of those gripes are unfounded. It was Donald Rumsfeld (remember him? Cheney doesn't) who came up with the idea of using a different name to refer to the War on Terror, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi did not join al-Qaeda until a year after the invasion, and Nancy Pelosi did not deviate from official White House foreign policy a single time during her trip.
Cheney's a Pathological liar. Plain and simple. Like his ranch in Wyoming. LOL.
Nice work, J.
I don't think they're necessarily stupid.
I do think that they live their lives in a delusional world,where they represent an all-powerful political and military entity that does no wrong and wraps them in it's flag-draped embrace as a beacon to the world.
Which is utter bullshit,IMO.
But that patriotic fantasy is much better to their fragile psyche's than the reality of corporate controlled government wreaking death and destruction on the world for profit margins.
Well blogged, Jonathan.
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