The Weakness of Liz Cheney
Last year, as the presidential campaign was heating up, the far right introduced a new group to counter the progressive voice of the veterans at VoteVets.org. Freedom's Watch started and ended with a sputter, mainly because the group was led by political folks who never served a day in their life -- from original leader Ari Fleischer through Brad Blakeman, who saw the group through to its quick end.
History seems to be repeating itself, with Liz Cheney, rolling out a new neo-con organization, Keep America Safe. The group's mission seems to be two-fold. First, try to rewrite history so that Dick Cheney looks like a visionary. And second, convince Americans that they're all going to die because of Barack Obama.
The problem, however, with this is also two-fold. First, Liz Cheney has no experience fighting wars and gets details wrong when she tries to look like she knows what she's talking about. Second, no matter how tough she talks, Liz Cheney's positions are weak, just like her father's.
From trying to falsely argue that our troops on the battlefield read Miranda rights to those enemy combatants we detain, to claiming that we employ waterboarding on our own soldiers in the same way we did with detainees (around 4:15 in the link), Liz Cheney shows she simply has no idea what she's talking about. It's not surprising, since she's simply carrying on the same failed philosophy put forth by a guy who never had the courage to put on the uniform himself -- indeed, actually evaded the call of his nation to do so.
More importantly, though, is that despite her tough bluster, Liz Cheney is an incredibly weak person. Weak people see everything in black and white, and take the easiest path. It's pretty easy to ignore the reputation issues Guantanamo Bay presents to our troops in harm's way who are trying to win hearts and minds, or that the facility is used as a recruiting poster for al Qaeda. It's easy to ignore what VoteVets.org's Jay Bagwell says in this video -- that detainees in Afghanistan had pamphlets on them depicting what happened at Gitmo. It's easy to ignore the Geneva Conventions and human rights laws, and what they say about torture. It's easy to ignore the fact that torture doesn't get actionable intelligence. It's easy to forget that what makes us the greatest nation in the world is partly based on our system of Justice, which involves trials. It's easy to fail to recognize that for the Muslims in the Middle East and Afghanistan region, snatching people up and putting them away forever without a trial is what hardline dictators and regimes do -- and that is the real problem that Guantanamo presents.
It takes a strong person to take all those things into consideration, and keep America on the moral high ground while protecting this nation. Only a morally and intellectually weak person can toss all those considerations away so willy-nilly. And that's what you have in Liz Cheney.
The ironic part of it is that, especially on Gitmo, those opposed to Liz Cheney have the tougher stance on terrorists. One of the favorite points that neo-cons like to make is that the facility at Gitmo allows detainees to socialize with each other, that they have top notch medical facilities there, and that besides the whole torture thing, they have life pretty good.
Excuse me? People that may have plotted to do America harm have it pretty good? That's not acceptable. By moving the detainees to our Super Max prison and putting them on trial, we can finally convict those who are guilty. Then, we can move those not sentenced to death to solitary at the Supermax, where they'll live out the rest of their days completely alone in a living hell -- the fate that they deserve -- shut away from the general population, so they cannot influence other prisoners with their bile. That's not only a tougher position than Cheney, it also upholds our values.
It also has been done already with terrorists and done successfully. The Supermax has been the home of Ramzi Yousef, who headed the group that carried out the first bombing of the World Trade Center; Zacarias Moussaoui, 9/11 conspirator; Ahmed Ressam, of the Los Angeles airport millennium attack plots; Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who conspired to kill President George W. Bush; Wadih el-Hage, guilty of the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya; Jose Padilla, who plotted detonating a dirty bomb; Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh of the Oklahoma City bombing; and the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski.
In the end, Liz Cheney and Keep America Safe are just a re-run of what was already tried and failed in 2008. Namely, using the veil of fear to mask an un-informed, false, and weak position. Maybe it'll win her points within the extreme right, but the American people have smartened up to her game, and they've decided they're stronger than she is.
Crossposted at VetVoice.com
Follow Jon Soltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jonsoltz
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Rachel would be happy to appear on Fox - it's Fox that is afraid to have her on! Liz on the other hand will NOT go on Rachel...
Liz probably won't appear on the Rachel Maddow show for the same reason Barack Obama won't appear on Fox.........
Why is Liz Cheney afraid to appear on the Rachel Maddow Show? The offer has been given....helloooo Liz ...put up or shut up!
Great post, facts not opinions and very well written...please keep up the good work js.
Great points, excellent post.
I completely agree with the points made in this article and felt they were very well articulated. Anyone that is incapable of accepting responsibility for their mistakes and simply retaliates against anyone that tries to openly discuss those mistakes is doomed to repeat them. Its not just the Cheneys and their associates, it is every American that refuses to accept responsibility for putting these people in power and allowing them to prepetuate their world view. Every time I read a comment from someone that is disallusioned with these disgraced and discredited personalities but had supported them in the past I feel there is hope because we won't be as likely to repeat the errors that have so messed up our country.
Outstanding, Jon.
Liz Cheney's greatest weakness is the same as the rest of the Neo-Con ChickenHawks: No experience beyond owning the complete box set of '24'.
Why any veterans group would choose to align themselves with a Cheney organization if unfathomable. When the American government states publicly that torturing our "enemies" is OK, that places a target on ALL Americans, military and civilian, that it is OK for them to be tortured as well.
Of course, what does Liz care, she will never be exposed. On that rarest occasion she MIGHT venture out from her cloistered world, she will be guarded by a gaggle of murderous mercenaries from Blackwater.
The Neo-Con idea has been throughly rebuked. The Obama administration stopped two potential attack using the "law enforcement" approach, as put forth by John Kerry in 2004. The Republicans/RightWingers pilloried him for saying it, but he has been proven right, both here and abroad.
Despite all the tough talk and macho posturing, Dick Cheney comes across as a scared, scared little man.
Sure.....what evahhhhhh.
You are truly smitten with Dick Cheney. Why is that?
I'd truly like to understand it.
I agree. All the punditry class - both writers and talkers - say Obama is not tough enough. All they really want is for Obama to talk this macho, bully, cowboy crap like Bush/Cheney did.
I detest Liz Cheney. She stands for what is worse about this country- seeing things in terms of black or white, no interest in the truth, my way or the highway, etc. As Jon said, she constantly makes the false equivalency that how we waterboard detainees is the same as we train our guys, although the situation is much harsher and clearly it is not training to detainees. Cheney has said waterboarding is not torture, although almost everyone in the civilized world says it is and we have a record of trying enemy soldiers for the crime against our soldiers. What Liz Cheney hates most is weakness, but her position shows the most glaring weaknesses. As the most powerful country in the world and one that shows moral aims, we should be able to negotiate with enemies and not only friends. We should be able to win hearts and minds through our goals and not only make people cower in fear through torture. When Liz Cheney speaks of America it sounds like the country Spain must have been during the Inquisition. As I said, i detest her and her father's failed policies.
There's a very easy way to get Liz's feelings on waterboarding, and to test her theory that it's not torture.
She can volunteer to be waterboarded, and report back how it felt. Should not be a problem to arrange...her father has all the right contacts.
Yes, remember the Chicago radio DJ Mancow firmly stated it was torture after he volunteered for the procedure. in fact, he lasted a few seconds. Before he tried it himself, he thought waterboarding was a joke. He was not even being held down and still described it as horrific torture!
Excellent Jon. Keep on keeping on and speak loud and proud. Thanks.
Liz Cheney,Sarah Palin, I hope that's not how the world sees american women.
Jon, again you betray your partisanship versus a true feeling for the troops that you claim to be protecting. As an Interrogator-Translator for over 14 years, I participated in many SERE training sessions. Along with being water-boarded myself, I submitted a large number of young Marines and Sailors to waterboarding. Why you would claim that this is not true, I'm not sure, but the truth is that a large number of men are waterboarded annually, as part of their training. The majority are aircrew and special forces, but when there is training opportunity, infantry commanders always submit their units for SERE training!
Semper fi
Their training insures that the waterboarding will not be pushed to the extreme: And they know it. Psychologically, very different from using on a prisoner. Also against Geneva Convention.
With the proper preparation, SERE students lose sight of your point, which makes it just as useful as that done by an enemy.
Our government has decided it will be against the Geneva Convention. It should not be, and was not, in the past!
Semper fi
I don't think Jon's point was that wterboarding was never used in training.
The way I read it, he was making a distinction, saying that the troops may not be treated to waterboarding say, 6 times a day for a month, or that the prisoners may not know in the back of their minds that they can call of the waterboarding (ala SERE training) if it gets too dreadful.
But you're avoiding the point that the chickenhawk Cheney family are merely cowards, who by trying to act tough, come off as know-nothing sadists.
Can you cite some proof that they are cowards? BTW, what is your military history? I've made mine fairly clear, 26 years in the Marine Corps, about half with the three infantry divisions.
Semper fi
Then as an interrogator you KNOW that waterboarding was described as torture. I guess your waffling means you were involved in torture? Oh, yes, this aircrew guy had the training and yes it was called torture. You failed as a military man and a person if you use or condone the use of torture.
It was NOT described as torture. That word was saved for bastinado, electrical shock, burning, freezing, starvation, etc., things that are real torture. It has been used by a multiplicity of combatants, including us, to good effect.
I never waffled at all, how do you get that?
Semper fi
266 Times???
266 what?
Semper fi
And you don't find it just the slightest bit ironic that we reverse engineered Ho Chi Mihn and Kim Il Sung's interrogation techniques?
Wow, I didn't know that waterboarding was so new! I thought it was over two thousand years old, in its many variations!
Semper fi
How to "Keep America Safe"?
Vote against anything associated with a Cheney.
Liz Cheney and her father as well as the rest of the NeoCons have this belief that war is the only answer no matter what as long as they or their famly are not the one fighting in it. Those of us who have served trained for war but are not quick to go to war. Unlike the NeoCons we know that war is suppose to be an act of last resort. Maybe if we put Liz and her daddy and the rest of the Neocons in uniform and put them in the middle of any war they seem to love, they might see the light but I really doubt it. So they will always stay behind waving their flag, stuffing apple pie into their face cheering go team go right up to the point where we come injuried and wounded upon which they just turn their backs once again to go the other way and then they have the nerve to call themselves Patriots who bleed red,white and blue but fact is their real color is yellow.
Well said and thank you for your service
What is well-said about it?
Are we to take it that only neocons send forces off to war and that all of them would not serve? President Truman comes to mind with the Korean Conflict, he served in WWI, but his daughter did not do anytime in the military. LBJ under false pretenses sent tens of thousands to die in Vietnam. Who in his family served in the military? ( No, an already serving and soon to serve set of son in laws does not count -- daughters do.)
No, the above is just a roaming rant.
And should a family who have profiteered so magnificently from war be permitted ANY say whatsoever in defence(aggression) policy?!
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