By Brigitte L. Nacos
Speaking to nearly one thousand graduates of the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point, Richard Cheney stuck with pushing the
administration’s Iraq war rationale. According to the Washington
Post, the vice president claimed that the war on terrorism centers on Iraq because
“that is where the enemy has massed.” Once again conveniently ignoring that, as
Maureen
Dowd puts it, “The terrorists moved into George Bush’s Iraq, not Saddam
Hussein’s. W.’s ranting about Al Qaeda there is like planting fleurs du mal and
then complaining your garden is toxic.” Of course, the mess in Iraq is also
Dick Cheney’s, Don Rumsfeld’s, Paul Wolfowitz’s, George Tenet’s, and Colin
Powell’s. But unlike the last four and some of the other architects of the Iraq
policy who are no longer part of the administration, the vice president
continues to wield a great deal of power. It is therefore all the more alarming
that he now focuses on Iran as much as on Iraq--or more so. According to an
editorial in today’s Washington
Post, “Some U.S. officials seem to take their cue from Vice President
Cheney's recent visit to one of the aircraft carriers cruising the Persian Gulf; military action against Iranian nuclear
facilities, they say, cannot be ruled out. Others press for an expansion of the
contacts that have begun between U.S.and Iranian officials on Iraq,
which will continue with a meeting of ambassadors in Baghdad tomorrow.”
On his blog The Washington Note, the well connected Steve Clemons posts a far more telling account about an intra-administration battle between those advocating a diplomacy-centered Iran policy--led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice--and those who support Cheney’s hardliner approach. According to Clemens:
Multiple sources have reported that a senior aide on Vice President Cheney's national security team has been meeting with policy hands of the American Enterprise Institute, one other think tank, and more than one national security consulting house and explicitly stating that Vice President Cheney does not support President Bush's tack towards Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic efforts and fears that the President is taking diplomacy with Iran too seriously. This White House official has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is planning to deploy an "end run strategy" around the President if he and his team lose the policy argument [emphasis added].Clemons reports furthermore that according to an official, “Cheney believes that Bush can not be counted on to make the "right decision" when it comes to dealing with Iran and thus Cheney believes that he must tie the President's hands.”
Let’s see hope that Dr. Rice and like-minded officials get a chance to continue their diplomatic efforts in spite of Cheney’s opposition.
Long Dong D.
Long dong Dick could hang a brick
Upon his genitalia,
But when he sneered some thought it weird,
And labeled him a failure.
Yet exercising every day
Taught him to bring up Chi,
He hung the brick and let it sway,
O such a man was he!
He went into the librarie
And swung his brick around
And after all the crashing glass
You couldn´t hear a sound.
Librarians peered from underneath
Their desks, partly appalled,
Partly attracted: bated breath
Confirmed his head was bald.
Yet long dong Dick so liked the trick
He swung his brick some more,
Till by his glance librarians
Confirmed dead on the floor.
Children were there, in pools of blood
Felled by long dong karate,
And, godlike, he declared it good,
The death of literati.
He swings his brick today you know,
Many are his admirers,
Fearful to go the way he go,
Yet with him co-conspirers.
Yes, Long dong Dick could hang a brick
Upon his genitalia,
And men kowtowed before him proud
In his austere regalia.
Posted by: I.M. Small | October 11, 2007 at 12:10 PM