Dick Cheney: Preemptive Warrior

Also published as an Opinion, on Wednesday, March 10, 2010, in the Delaware County Daily Times (www.delcotimes.com) under the title ‘Peace is just a word in the dictionary’

By

Dr. Mahmoud S. Audi

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is a master in the use and the defense of pre-emptive wars, in making new enemies out of potential friends, and in increasing the current enemies. He seems to believe that our superiority and our economic dominance would best be served by perpetual wars.
Peace is just a word in the dictionary; it must be used sparingly, because it is the refuge of the weak, so people like him think. He seems to use the preemptive war doctrine, not only in the defense of our country, but also in defending himself in the political and personal arenas. Such application of the later aspect of the doctrine is evident in his ongoing attacks against President Barack Obama and his administration.
There is no doubt in my mind that he despises the President partly because his way of leading this great country is different from his. But his continued attack, which includes diminution of the president, is a preemptive war against Obama and the Democrats.
The attacks are vicious and frequent; his wife and his daughter are part of his offensive. Also his abrasive pronouncements are the feed which the imbecile hosts of a number of radio and television talk shows consume. They get the cue and run with it. They parrot what he says and, using their imagination, they stretch and spin it in many different permutations.
The former Vice President is doing what has not been done before: a former vice president attacks a sitting president. It is important to state he is not doing it because he is bitter that his political party lost two major elections—the 2006 midterm election and the 2008 Presidential election.
He is not doing it because Obama and his administration are ending the war on Iraq or because they will be closing the war in Afghanistan soon or because they are closing the infamous torture prison at Guantanamo Bay or because they are processing the trials of the Guantanamo prisoners in civilian courts upholding our values, which are the pride of our uniqueness, and denying the enemy one of its propaganda tools.
If we say that the former vice president has been attacking the president out of bitterness for the loss of his party, then we can infer that politicians are loyal to their political parties, but we know from many examples they are not loyal to their parties. If a politician had belonged to a party that did not give him what he wanted, he would switch to another party, or he would create his own party. Exhibit 1: Sen. Lieberman of Connecticut. Exhibit 2: Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Exhibit 3: Sen. Strom Thurman of South Carolina. Exhibit 4: Former President Ronald Reagan of California. Exhibit 5: a large group of southern Senators switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party when the wind of change had come to the South.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, when the elections were done, some media personalities and politicians were adamant about investigating the alleged illegal war on Iraq, the uncompetitive awarding of contracts, the torture of detainees at the Guantanamo Prison.
No one doubts, if we are attacked we will respond in kind regardless how big or how small the attack, we will win without the suspension of International Law and the disabling of our moral values and legal procedures.
The noise demanding the appointment of commissions to investigate the allegations was getting louder and louder. Cheney knew where the winds were blowing, so he started his preemptive war against Obama and his administration.
The media loved it. They covered the attacks and got busy reporting, analyzing, and the progressive politicians denounced his pronouncements and his press releases. They did not have the extra time or space to handle the pursuance of investigating the allegations and his role in the Presidency of George W. Bush.
The media normally give priority to new happenings. Thus, in these days you do not hear the voices calling for the investigation of the abuses of power by Cheney during the Bush administration.
So far the former vice president has won the preemptive war against President Obama and his administration. The problems facing the president and his party are overwhelming. The Democratic congress and the Republicans have not been helpful.
Practically, it is wise to let the forgone forgo and focus on the issues of today and tomorrow. History will treat the Cheney matter better.