Post #96

Subject: Never trust a man named Dick! :p

… from “CNN LARRY KING LIVE,” an interview with Vice-President Dick Cheney, July 31, 2007. My responses and additions – in [brackets]….

LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, Vice President Dick Cheney -- powerful, controversial, backer of a war that most Americans now oppose. Seen by some as the enforcer for an administration under siege. Vice-President Cheney answering some tough questions, next on LARRY KING LIVE.

[Ya know it will be an easy night for Dick when the host promises “tough questions.” :p But of course Dick would not go where there really were tough questions.]

KING: Don't you ever say, maybe I'm wrong?

CHENEY: No. I think what we do is we look at it in terms of trying to decide what's the right thing to do. And the -- and weigh the evidence. And there's a lot of debate and discussion. We went through the exercise at the beginning of this year, you may remember, when the president decided to put more forces into Baghdad. That's a time when we evaluated a whole range of options; when we talked to a wide number of people with a variety of viewpoints; met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff; talked to outside military experts, as well as the politicos on the ground; and made a judgment. The president made a decision then, and the -- and I think it was the right decision that was to go with the surge.

[I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn for sale to anybody who believes there was “a lot” of debate and discussion on the surge! :p Just like the War itself, the decision was made, and the rationalizations have followed,]

KING: ...in retrospect, you would still go into Iraq?

CHENEY: Yes, sir.

KING: So those 3,000 plus lives have not died in vain?

CHENEY: No, sir. Larry, you worry about every single casualty. And...

[And… what? Ya got to break a few eggs to get an omelet, right, Dick?]

KING: Do you feel the burden of it?

CHENEY: Absolutely. When you're in one of those positions -- the president obviously has the biggest burden. I shared some of that when I was secretary of defense during Desert Storm. There are times when you make decisions to commit military forces when you know that one of the results of that is going to be that there are going to be American casualties, that American soldiers are going to die. It's one of the most difficult things anybody has to do. It goes with being president of the United States. And we have to have somebody prepared to make those decisions.

[Um, did Dick Cheney just call George W. Bush callous?? :p Seriously, Dick, how do you “feel the burden?” Sleepless nights, hand-written notes, birthday gifts for orphans? Uh, wait – now I see: The burden is to be felt by the President. No blood on your hands, right, Dick?]

CHENEY: And I firmly believe, Larry, that the decisions we've made with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan have been absolutely the sound ones in terms of the overall strategy. … There are always things in war that happen that nobody anticipated, surprises, things that don't go exactly as planned, that's the nature of warfare. But that doesn't mean the strategy isn't -- isn't the correct strategy, that the objective isn't the right objective. … When he [Bush] is finished, I'm finished. We walk out of here on January 20th of '09 and I think we'll be able to hold our heads high knowing we did the best we could for the country.

[Um, no, Dick – ya’ll have not done what is best for this country. This country was manipulated into supporting a war against a threat of non-existent WMD and non-existent links between Saddam and Osama. And ya’ll couldn’t get Osama, why not get Saddam? The objective was to get rid of Saddam – there was no strategy, no plans for what comes next. Now, we are in hole, and your only idea is to keep digging. And how is that best for this country? The threat of terrorism is still here. Ann Coulter said in my Post #95 that you beat fanatics by destroying the societies that produce them. Wasn’t the lead 9/11 hijacker from Egypt? Wasn’t most of the 9/11 hijackers from Saudi Arabia? Isn’t Al-Qaeda alive in Pakistan? And we are destroying our military in Irag? How is that best for this country? Well, you did the best you could – and that is truly sad.]