Last night, I was invited to appear on MSNBC's Ed Show to discuss, amongst other things, former Vice President Dick Cheney's dishonest, unpatriotic, hypocritical and highly personal continuing attacks on President Obama. I also discussed South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint's record of putting his personal hatred of Labor Unions and his devotion to ideology above making sure we have all of the tools possible to protect the security of our Nation.
I, for one, am sick and tired of these Bush-era chicken hawk politicians that never served in uniform attacking Democrats on national security when in fact, they are largely to blame for our nation's current national security problems. Apparently, former Vice President Cheney and the likes of Senator Jim DeMint actually believe that they can score political points by forcing America to remember the incredible failures of the previous administration and to that I say: "Bring it on." I have no problem running against their record of global economic failure, avarice, corporate greed run amok, no-bid insider contracts, and disastrous foreign policy decisions that left us isolated on the international stage at the very moment when we needed to count our allies. I welcome the opportunity for the Vice President to relive his glory days. And I welcome the opportunity to call him out and debate him one on one. Personally, I think it's time for Vice President Cheney to either put up or shut up.
I am a military veteran who gladly wore the uniform of the United States Navy for the majority of my adult life. I, and thousands of others, graduated from Annapolis and I witnessed, firsthand, the results of failed political decisions that were thrust upon the military while serving in the Beirut theater of operations in 1983. I survived a diagnosis of terminal cancer, which is largely believed by many to have been caused by the depleted heavy metal uranium shells we were firing during the first Gulf War. I had the honor to serve as the Special Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, General Wesley Clark, when he, along with thousands of uniformed personnel and a core team of professional civilian personnel, planned and executed a successful strategy to defeat the genocidal regime of Slobodan Milosevic.
I, and millions of other veterans, can't even count the number of Christmases, New Year's Eve's, Birthdays, 4th of July's and Thanksgivings that we spent overseas and at home protecting our nation.
We were Americans, not Republican or Democrats. For the likes of the former Vice President to politicize national security in an attempt to score cheap political points is beyond unacceptable and his behavior will no longer be met with polite silence. It's time to hit back, harder, with better aim and with purpose of forethought.
Now, as I complete my first year in the United States Congress, my days continue to be focused on protecting our Nation. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee, I have sat through hundreds of hours of testimony and worked around the clock to try to fix the mess George Bush and Dick Cheney left us. Make no bones about it, we are fixing what they broke. We are working everyday to support the troops, both in the field and when they come home.
We should declare 2010 the year that we stop listening to the empty rhetoric of arm chair chicken hawk quarterbacks like Dick Cheney and Jim DeMint when they try to shift blame for their failure and their incompetence on Democrats. We need to fight back.
Personally, I am glad that President Obama took three days to study the details of the attempted attack on Flight 253. President Bush took six days before weighing in on the case of shoe bomber Richard Reid, and I was glad when he took his time to get the facts straight before addressing the Nation.
Where was Dick Cheney when the two alleged masterminds of the Christmas attack were freed from Guantanamo Bay on November 9th, 2007? I hope Senator Jim DeMint had a lovely Christmas while the permanent office of the TSA Administrator remained vacant because of his deep, personal vendetta against organized labor (heaven forbid we should allow those that work on the front lines to protect us from terrorists from earning a decent living and fair benefits).
Vice President Cheney, Senator DeMint, it's time for both of you to be held accountable for your failures and your poor decisions.
I challenge both of you to stand in the light of day and debate your record with me. Your partisan attacks are nothing but empty rhetoric and it's time to declare that we can no longer stand by while you attack our President for working to protect our Nation and for having an honest dialog about what went wrong.
Let's make a New Year's Resolution to call out hypocrisy in 2010. Stand against it and any time that former Vice President Dick Cheney opens his hypocritical mouth to continue uttering blather, he needs to be challenged in a straight forward factual manner that will demonstrate the emptiness of his rhetoric.
Congressman Eric Massa represents New York's 29th Congressional District.
Follow Rep. Eric J.J. Massa on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ericmassa
Cheney feeds his base a steady diet of his garbage for a reason. Many reasons actually, collectively known as a stack of cash. He wants lots of buyers for his book, so staying before the camera is important. He must stir up his base with his ugly, rancid version of the truth. He isn't interested in debate, just his own interests.
The fact that Cheney can say what he's been saying isn't specifically relevant; the fact that he's been saying it and hasn't yet spent a moment in court listening to "charges" of possible violations of our Constitution is what is actually shameful.
Ironically, this lack of investigation isn't remotely Cheney's doing (I think anyway; if the man is truly *that* powerful then we're all doomed for real) so, really...who's to blame?
Cheney just wants to avoid a trial in the Hague, he's meaningless. The real fight is in the Senate over the filibuster. The bill the House passed, short of the Stupak language, was what this country needs. You and your fellow Representatives can't serve the needs of Americans until the Senate can be made to function.
FIFTY...
Why should he stop now?
The Dems need to castigate De Mint for his stupidity and lack of caring for the safety of the American people.
OBAMA TAKES A LITTLE TIME TO GET HIS FACTS STRAIGHT AND THEN .... AND ONLY THEN WILL HE GIVE HIS THOUGHTS.
As a result, battalions with 800 soldiers were trying to secure provinces the size of Vermont. “Coalition forces remained thinly spread across Afghanistan,†the historians write. “Much of the country remained vulnerable to enemy force increasingly willing to reassert their power.â€
That early and undermanned effort to employ counterinsurgency is one of several examples of how American forces, hamstrung by inadequate resources, missed opportunities to stabilize Afghanistan during the early years of the war, according to the history, “A Different Kind of War.â€
Unclear guidance, inadequate resources
In one telling anecdote from 2004, the history describes how soldiers under General Barno had so little experience in counterinsurgency that one lieutenant colonel bought books about the strategy over the Internet and distributed them to his company commanders and platoon leaders.
In another case, a civil affairs commander in charge of small-scale reconstruction projects told the historians that he had been given $1 million in cash to house and equip his soldiers but that bureaucratic obstacles prevented him from spending a penny on projects. It took months to reduce the red tape, the historians say.
They were asking for more troops- it is all on c-span's archives!
Cheney - Please - explain why you allowed our soldiers to remain in such dire straits under your command.
Tell us how great you are Cheney!
A sample of DICK's competence:
Report finds early missteps in Afghanistan
New unpublished history shows effort was undermanned and resourced
When the Taliban was on the run in the spring of 2002, Lt. Gen. Dan K. McNeill, the incoming commander of American forces, traveled to Washington seeking guidance.
The message conveyed by the Army’s vice chief of staff, Gen. Jack Keane, was: “Don’t do anything that looks like permanence,†General McNeill recalled. “We are in and out of there in a hurry.â€
Largely as a result of that mandate, General McNeill took only half of his headquarters command from the 18th Airborne Corps.
But as the conflict became more complicated, requiring diplomatic and political operations, General McNeill lacked enough planning personnel, the history suggests. He was replaced in 2003 by an even smaller headquarters unit, the history says.
The lack of resources was also apparent in the training of Afghan security forces, the history shows.
In the fall of 2003, the new commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David W. Barno, decided on a new strategy.
Known as counterinsurgency, the approach required coalition forces to work closely with Afghan leaders to stabilize entire regions, rather than simply attacking insurgent cells.
But there was a major drawback, a new unpublished Army history of the war concludes.