Obama versus old “what’s his name”
I didn’t agree with all of President Obama’s speech yesterday (notably his rejection of a investigatory commission and his endorsement of open-ended “preventive detention”), but what a relief it is to watch an American president appeal to our sense of reason instead of our sense of fear. The best thing one can say about ...
I didn’t agree with all of President Obama’s speech yesterday (notably his rejection of a investigatory commission and his endorsement of open-ended “preventive detention”), but what a relief it is to watch an American president appeal to our sense of reason instead of our sense of fear.
The best thing one can say about Cheney’s performance is that it was given by an ex-Vice President. Others have dissected the various lies and distortions that filled his speech (what did one expect?), I would only add that there is a track record here. 9/11 occurred on Cheney’s watch, and he helped lead us into two losing wars, at a cost of thousands of dead Americans, tens of thousands wounded, and over a trillion dollars spent, mostly in ways that have improved the strategic position of, oops, … Iran. Plus, he gets partial credit for an unprecedented decline in America’s global image and the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression. At this point, taking Cheney’s recommendations on any issue of public policy is like getting investment help from Bernie Madoff, marital counseling from Donald Trump, or advice on economic development from Robert Mugabe.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Stephen M. Walt is a columnist at Foreign Policy and the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University. Twitter: @stephenwalt
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