Afghanistan-Dithering Obama to Emanuel and Axelrod – “Sic ‘em!” Cheney Muzzles

Unable to tolerate growing criticism of his Afghanistan war tail-chasing, Obama snapped the leash off attack dogs Emanuel and Axelrod this weekend to sic the Bush Administration. Appearing on weekend television news programs, Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod snarled that Obama has had to craft a war strategy from scratch, is just at the starting point, and that President Bush left office without a strategy for Afghanistan.

Weary of the growling, former Vice President Dick Cheney donned a proverbial dog-catcher suit as he addressed the Center for Security Policy audience in Washington D.C. last night. Here’s how he used TRUTH to muzzle Obama’s criticisms.

“…Among my other concerns about the drift of events under the present administration, I consider the abandonment of missile defense in Eastern Europe to be a strategic blunder and a breach of good faith… Only last year, the Russian Army moved into Georgia, under the orders of a man who regards the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century. Anybody who has spent much time in that part of the world knows what Vladimir Putin is up to. And those who try placating him, by conceding ground and accommodating his wishes, will get nothing in return but more trouble.”

“Recently, President Obama’s advisors have decided that it’s easier to blame the Bush Administration than support our troops. This weekend they leveled a charge that cannot go unanswered. The President’s chief of staff claimed that the Bush Administration hadn’t asked any tough questions about Afghanistan, and he complained that the Obama Administration had to start from scratch to put together a strategy.

In the fall of 2008, fully aware of the need to meet new challenges being posed by the Taliban, we dug into every aspect of Afghanistan policy, assembling a team that traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, reviewing options and recommendations, and briefing President-elect Obama’s team. They asked us not to announce our findings publicly, and we agreed, giving them the benefit of our work and the benefit of the doubt. The new strategy they embraced in March, with a focus on counterinsurgency and an increase in the numbers of troops, bears a striking resemblance to the strategy we passed to them. They made a decision – a good one, I think – and sent a commander into the field to implement it.

Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced.”

“Last January 20th, our successors in office were given the highest honors that the voters of this country can give any two citizens. Along with that, George W. Bush and I handed the new president and vice president both a record of success in the war on terror, and the policies to continue that record and ultimately prevail. We had been the decision makers, but those seven years, four months, and nine days without another 9/11 or worse, were a combined achievement: a credit to all who serve in the defense of America, including some of the finest people I’ve ever met.

What the present administration does with those policies is their call to make, and will become a measure of their own record. But I will tell you straight that I am not encouraged when intelligence officers who acted in the service of this country find themselves hounded with a zeal that should be reserved for America’s enemies. And it certainly is not a good sign when the Justice Department is set on a political mission to discredit, disbar, or otherwise persecute the very people who helped protect our nation in the years after 9/11.

We cannot hope to win a war by talking down our country and those who do its hardest work – the men and women of our military and intelligence services. They are, after all, the true keepers of the flame.”

 

While Obama engages in political yipping and nipping, let’s hope America’s quest for victory over Taliban terrorists and stability for Afghanistan doesn’t go to the dogs.

 

Note - In reference to a speech Dick Cheney gave to the American Enterprise Institute on May 21, 2009 Mitt Romney said:  “Vice President Cheney has been the target of every media, from mainstream to comic. But he spoke today as before without regard to the politics but with abiding respect for the truth. Barack Obama is still hanging on to the campaign trail. He said that the last thing he thinks about when he goes to sleep at night is keeping America safe. That’s a big difference with Vice President Cheney—when it came to protecting Americans, he never went to sleep.”

Full transcript of Dick Cheney’s Center for Security speech here.
Additional Resource: Keep America Safe – Founders: Elizabeth L. Cheney, Debra Burlingame, William Kristol