Cheney On 4,000 Dead Americans: They Volunteered

ABC News :

Wrapping up a nine-day overseas trip to Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney was asked, in an exclusive interview with ABC News, about the effect on the nation of today's grim milestone of at least 4,000 U.S. deaths over the five-year Iraq war.

Noting the burden placed on military families, the Vice President said the biggest burden is carried by President Bush, and reminded ABC news that the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan volunteered for duty.

Read the whole story: ABC News

Comments

[intuition]

But you cheated, Mr. Cheney.

[TechHead]

I hope everyone is watching "Bush's War" on FrontLine at PBS ...

[TechHead]

Feb. 1962: Dick Cheney receives his draft classification: 1-A, but they were only taking older men. He was doing poorly at Yale, so he came home and worked locally as a power company lineman.

[kasha]

Let's not forget this part, Dick: They didn't all volunteer on your watch or for your war. Some volunteered before that at a time when there was reasonably competent and properly motivated political leadership running the government. Unfortunately many of those volunteers later got sucked into your elective first-strike invaasion of a non-threatening country before their military commitments or careers came to an end.

[Pleidian]

Well, after George Herbert Walker Bush, this man is the greatest threat to the United States as we know and love it. What a psycotic FREAK! Clearly this "man" is not really a VP but a business agent for the military-industrial complex, energy cartels and all around fascism. How can this be allowed!??!? It's worse than some screenwriters fanciful twist in 24 - by orders of magnitude.

[majseventh]

Evil and heartless.

[eliandbo]

What is Cheney saying? ..........­....."THEY ASKED FOR IT"!!

[KQuark]

Cheney is the most evil man on the planet.

[elderly]

As hard as he tries he is only the second most evil man on the planet; george is in a class by himself; he bears the responsibility and the guilt for this obscenity-no one else.

[AaaBee]

Can you blame the puppet for the hand/s that are up its backside?

[ewoifhakn]

horrible attitude yes, but he isn't wrong. one of the downsides to joining a military is the possibility of getting killed doing your job, and that job isn't to worry about whether what you are doing is right or wrong, or whether you agree with the politics behind it, your job is to follow orders. period. the soldiers, marines and sailors that have died doing their jobs should be honored for volunteering their lives to serve our country and our government. to say that they have died for nothing or for an unworthy cause is to piss on their graves. too much is taken for granted.

[americanwhocares]

ewifhakn: Totally incorrect analysis: People who join the military, do so with the understanding that they will have competent leaders who will not endanger them through stupidity and/or incompetence. The current commander-in-chief is a draft dodger and he is both incompetent and stupid. Our brave hero's in uniform deserve far better. This is a war for oil and money, nothing else. And the people who have died possibly died due to the greed of the money set.

[AnotherTry]

People who join the military have no reason to assume that their leaders will be coompetent. Nothing from our recent history would suggest such a thing. They signed up under the worst president in our history, so they were asking for it in a way. None of what has resulted in Iraq is a surprise to me. Why should it surprise our soldiers?

[scottymac11]

ewoifhakn.­.. If your post was sincere there was a mistake in your logic. The sacrifice of these soldiers lives is considered a tragedy by all. Nothing but honor and respect is given. The people who have abused our troops are the ones who took their trust and loyalty, and misspent their patriotism in an improper action. Only they know why they started this Iraq invasion. What is known is they lied about the real reason. This administration dug their graves through deceit and then pissed on them by continuing the lie.

[jaschrod]

It is true they volunteered, but they did not volunteer to fight illegitimate wars. They did not join to police the world. They did not join to be used as cannon fodder for the whims of a delusional president. They joined to protect this country in times of threat to this country. Your next statement will be, we were attacked, which will show that you do not understand what occurred before the 9/11 attack. You cannot blame a country for fighting back in the only way they have ability to do so. Another thing you do not understand, is that Al-Qaeda has already won this war. Ben Laden stated early on that they could not defeat us militarily. The only way they could hurt us was financially, and that has been accomplished.

[JacobSinger]

"to say that they have died for nothing or for an unworthy cause is to piss on their graves."

A statement such as this is dishonest, and in extremely poor taste. To say that American soldiers have been improperly used for advancing a criminal objective is true, fair and obvious to all but the blindest of simple-minded followers.

To use such a valuable human resource for inhuman and criminal goals is the crime, not the identification of the crime nor the person calling it out as such. If you want to take issue with the unnecessary deaths of US soldiers then I suggest you hold the congress and the Chimp-in-Charge responsible.

The most disingenuous statement anyone supporting the US military can make is along the lines of the one you made above; it is amazing to me that you cannot see the truth of the matter. When good men and women die for causes not worth the sacrifice of their lives, then it is right and necessary for us to call out those who have sent them to die in vain--your statment supports defending those who squander our most valuable resource--people willing to die for this country.

If, as in Genesis, the blood of dead US soldiers in Iraq were like the blood of Able, crying out to God, your statement supports silencing the voices of those who cry out for justice in order to protect those who sacrficed them needlessly.

[ewoifhakn]

but have they died in vain? the only way to answer that question is through speculation, as there is no way to know if the iraqi people are better off with a democracy than a dictatorsh­ip.... right? it doesn't matter now because like it or not, we have made a mess and what we need to do is clean it up, not just leave it to fester and possibly become worse. no american that dies in iraq at this point dies for nothing, or for an unworthy cause, but unfortunately it began that way. you are correct though, my statement was in poor taste. i am in the military, by the way.

[AaaBee]

Humbling post. Thank you.

[Robt]

Yes it is a volunteer Military. And yes there are some that have volunteered to return for more duty in Iraq. There are those that volunteer to stay for their buddys.

[dmack]

The men and women of our military swore to defend this country from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Not to expand an empire. A statement such as this shows that the powers that be really don't give a damn about the soldiers. They see soldiers as tools for economic growth. To say something like that is like saying,"That's what soldiers are for", or"Oh well, sucks to be them." Its unbelievable that a Vice-President can be so cold and unconcerned. We have more home grown terrorism right here in the USA than in the Middle East. Drug cartels, militia, KKK, White Supremist, gangs, etc. These terrorist killed more people than 1000 9/11s.

[scottymac11]

Oh My God. This spineless,­heartless,­gutless 5 deferment getting wonder. He sure has got an unbelievable heap of gall. He never volunteered for anything but a monster share of profits from this unfortunate adventure. The closest he'll ever get to combat is boozing and plinking at tethered birds. His hunting companions need combat pay for that. What a hollowed out callous heart he would have. If he had one. Smug ass' d coward.

[KellyGrace]

Cheney and Bush are oblivious to the fact that this war is like a Greek tragedy. As with Greek tragedies, everyone loses, and the losses are big and forever.

[dmack]

Who lost? Losing depends on perspective and intent. If the intent was to make Iraq a better country, then maybe it was a loss. But what if the end product was the intent, then you must label this a win. Look at the 100s of billions of dollars grossed by companies granted no-bid contracts. Because there isn't any resistence, there are pipelines being built as we speak. The oil is there for the taking, with no resistence. All these companies are tied to Busn and Cheney, amoung others. Look at who benefits from this. Follow the money.

[jaschrod]

There you go. This war has been an astounding success for the Bush administration. Unbelievable that 30% of the people are so ignorant to not understand this.

[takingbkourcountry]

WHY does this beings pacemaker still work in an satanic entities body?

[donaldw6]

They're lying about the pacemaker. They want you to think he has a heart.

[tevis]

I volunteer Cheney . . . for cannon fodder. What a pathetic, draft-dodging fat, pudgy little weasel.

[MadJeffersonian]

And where was your sorry ass, Dick(head), during Vietnam? Were you babysitting Bushie then, too?