Cheney insults the American public and the troops
Today marks twice in one week Dick Cheney has insulted the American people, and now he's been brazen enough to insult the troops he and Bush have placed in harm's way. The outrage began last week, when Cheney was faced with this question:
RADDATZ: Let me go back to the Americans. Two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting, and they're looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives.
His answer:
THE VICE PRESIDENT: So?
That's his one-syllable response to the outrage 200 million Americans feel over being lied into war, at the cost of 4,000 dead American soldiers: "So?" I'm not even going to dignify with a response Cheney's ludicrous comparison of George W. Bush to Abraham Lincoln, which came a couple of sentences later. The insult of that comparison speaks for itself.
Cheney further clarified his contempt for the American people today in a follow-up interview:
"Look, there are alot of people out there, Martha, that don't agree with me about a lot of things, but if I wanted to be loved, I'd ought to be a TV correspondent, not a politician," he said.
Cheney is attempting to equate America's outrage over this administration's malfeasance with some kind of popularity contest. He's also attempting to ignore the fact that he and his little buddy in the Oval Office are not king and viceroy, but that he and Bush do ultimately answer to the American people.
At least, they're supposed to.
In that same follow-up interview, Cheney also insulted the American troops who are dying for his boondoggle. When asked to reflect on the fact that 4,000 dead American soldiers have died in the Iraq occupation, Cheney said this:
"It places a special burden obviously on the families, and we recognize, I think -- it's a reminder of the extent to which we are blessed with families who've sacrificed as they have."
He should have stopped right there. Instead, he let his true thoughts shine right on through:
"The president carries the biggest burden, obviously," Cheney said. "He's the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, the all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm's way for the rest of us."
In Dick Cheney's mind, the misguided and mendacious decisions made by his "boss" are somehow more of a burden than the loss felt by those 4,000 families. Those families will never see their sons, daughters, husbands, and wives again, but in Cheneyland, that burden pales in comparison to the heavy weight of Bush's pen, wielded from the comfort of the Oval Office. Neither Bush nor Cheney will ever lose a child to the illegitimate occupation of Iraq, yet the weight of Bush's pen somehow trumps the grief and loss of those who have.
He also attempts to rationalize those 4,000 needless deaths by noting that the military is all volunteer. Never mind the fact that stop-loss policies have resulted in many soldiers doing up to five tours of duty in Iraq, well beyond the time they were supposed to have left the service. To Cheney, the mere fact that they volunteered at some point in the past justifies any depravity the Bush gang wish to thrust upon them.
It's a real shame Pelosi took impeachment "off the table." We cannot rid ourselves of these arrogant criminals soon enough.