Return of the Dark Lord
by digby
I wrote about the Dark Lord for Salon this morning and his new book about American Exceptionalism. An excerpt:
But how to explain this new apostasy, which is so shocking that you have to wonder if there isn’t a tear in the Murdoch matrix somewhere. Liz and Dick Cheney appeared with Chris Wallace on Sunday to talk about their new book, and Wallace actually confronted them with some some inconvenient facts:
Wallace highlighted how the Bush administration dealt with Iran, pointing out how Iran went from zero centrifuges in 2007 to over 5000 in 2009. He asked, “In fairness, didn’t you leave––the Bush-Cheney administration leave––President Obama with a mess?”
Cheney rejected that assertion and pointed to the removal of Saddam Hussein as a blow against Iran. Wallace brought up the centrifuges again, and Cheney said that was “under Obama’s watch, not under our watch.”
Wallace again point out this happened between 2007 and 2009.
He moved on to Iraq, which the Cheneys have criticized Obama over, especially regarding the removal of U.S. troops in 2011. Wallace pointed out the original status of forces agreement was negotiated under George W. Bush.
Liz and Dick were not amused. The official propaganda line says that the Ayatollah was so shocked and awed by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney’s big swinging leadership that when we invaded he threw his robe over his head and ran around in circles, screaming at his minions to tear up all plans to make a nuclear weapon before bursting into tears and taking to his bed for a good old fashioned cry.
That didn’t actually happen. In fact, the invasion of Iraq was cheered by the Iranian regime; they all high fived each other over their good fortune. Who could have ever predicted that America would be so generous as to take out Iran’s most hated rival on both a sectarian and nationalist basis for them? To then refuse to even engage in non-proliferation discussions, giving the regime the room to really crank up a nuclear program was just too kind.
And as for Iraq, Wallace had it right. The Bush administration left their successor with a terrible mess on his hands. Even the master dealmaker and four time bankrupt real estate mogul Donald Trump himself would have had a hard time extricating himself from that agreement. The Obama administration tried, much to the chagrin of his liberal supporters whose votes were largely based on his promise to get out. But the Bush administration and the Iraqi government had left them with very little to work with short of re-invading and putting the country under occupation.
According to the Cheneys’ book, none of that is correct. It’s a bizarroworld tour de force in which the Iraq war was a rousing American victory that resulted in the Middle East becoming a stable region where the Sunni and Shia were holding hands and promising to love one another. That is until Barack Obama came along and tore it all asunder with his weak and cowardly refusal to “lead.”
But the book isn’t just a recapitulation of their lame excuses for having trashed the Middle East and then standing on the sidelines pointing fingers as if they had nothing to do with it. It’s a lecture about “American Exceptionalism,” the right wing’s favorite rationale for American Empire. In other words, a campaign blueprint for the next Republican presidential candidate.
Cheney’s giving a bit Iran speech today on the anniversary of his and Condoleeza Rice’s visit to all the Sunday shows to wring their hands about “aluminum tubes” and declare that we shouldn’t let the “smoking gun” be a “mushroom cloud” thus proving that he is a member of the undead.
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