I Thought Darth Vader Died?

I had to do a post on the amazing resurrection of Dick Cheney. I recall asking the question over the last 8 years at least a dozen times, is Cheney still alive? I have not heard anything about him for months if not years. Then he shows up at Obama'a Inauguration in a wheel chair, and now he won't sit down and he won't shut up.

I really find this debate un-intersitng, as I imagine most people do considering some of the crisis we face. So I watched the speeches made by both men (Cheney and Obama) to try to get some perspective. I came out of it only slightly more interested, but poised to write this post because of one statement Cheney made, "When they see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don't stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for - our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity."

Wow! I am trying to find out how this concern plays into his relentless desire to perpetuate this argument on a public stage. If the Obama administration was the only voice this story would largely be buried by the momentous activity that has been accomplished in such a short time, but the fact that Cheney won't shut up continues to propel this debate into the top of the media headlines.....

Now that I do have some perspective, I decided to actually weigh in :

Cheney slams Obama's decision to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. However, the effort to shut down the facility, began during Bush's second term, promoted by Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Cheney has yet to cite any specific plots that were disrupted by aggressive interrogations. Cheney is seeking the release of CIA reports that will show information gained from the interrogations, but the fact that suspects gave up information after harsh questioning does not definitively preclude the possibility that they might have given up information through less physical forms of interrogation – which is one of Obama’s central points. In addition, the hypocrisy of his line of attack, since his initial rallying cry is that the release of the memos by the Obama administration endanger our National Security? I guess it is OK to endanger National Security in an effort to vindicate your personal legacy??

Obama's line on this has not been without flaw, as he stated in his speech that, "We are not going to release anyone if it would endanger our national security, nor will we release detainees within the United States who endanger the American people.” In reality, he really can’t make this promise. If detainees are brought to U.S. soil it is at least possible that courts could order the release of prisoners brought to the U.S. to face military commissions or civilian trials and release a prisoner who is acquitted.

So to close lets just state what we do know as fact.... As Joe Biden says Cheney went too far and became an independent power center at the White House, keeping many of his activities secret from other policymakers and creating a Machiavellian decision-making process.

Mr. Cheney with all of the fear-mongering and proclamations about keeping this country safer 9/11 happened on your watch. You ignored warnings from experts in the CIA , the Defense Intelligence Agency , the State Department , the Department of Energy and other agencies, and used false and exaggerated intelligence supplied by Iraqi exile groups and others to help make the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenant, Ayman al Zawahri , remain at large nearly eight years after 9/11. Your administration began diverting U.S. forces, intelligence assets, time and money to planning an invasion of Iraq before finishing the war in Afghanistan against al Qaida and the Taliban .

There are now 49,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan fighting to contain the bloodiest surge in Taliban violence since the 2001 U.S. invasion, and Islamic extremists have launched their most concerted attack yet on neighboring and nuclear-armed Pakistan.

So spare us from the rhetoric that accomplished little when you actually had the power to do SOMETHING!!!!