Cheney -- Crazy or Bat-Shit Crazy: You Decide

I imagine most of my readers have already heard about Dick Cheney's spin on the British draw-down of troops in Southern Iraq:

I think they believe that in southern Iraq, that Basra region where they've
been most active, we have made significant progress. And I think that's one of
the reasons they feel that they can draw down their forces there...

I look at it, and what I see is an affirmation of the fact that there are
parts of Iraq where things are going pretty well.

I talked to a friend just the other day... [he] found the situation
dramatically improved compared to where it was a year or so ago, sort of
validated the British view that they have made progress in southern Iraq, and
that they can therefore afford to reduce their force posture.

Hmm... let's see. The same Bush regime that keeps telling us that reducing our troops in Iraq is a "cut and run" strategy, and is telling us that we need a surge of 20,000 more troops to be thrown into the grinder, thinks it's okey-dokey that the British are getting the hell out? Huh?

I don't know who this guy Cheney has been talking to about how well things are going down in Southern Iraq -- probably another intelligence person that Cheney bullied into saying what he wants to hear -- but the consensus view is that things are shit-tastic there. The word leaking out is that the British don't have control down there at all. Reporters who were there in 2003 and then again recently talk about how the British rode around openly in unarmored vehicles then but now hardly venture outside of their camp. And, according to one report I heard, something like two-thirds of Basra is now considered "no-go" areas for the British.

Yeah. It's going great. If the Brits were really pulling out because things are "going pretty well" there, wouldn't it be a big help if they brought some of those unneeded troops up to help out as part of the surge? Yeah, you'd think someone would ask them if they'd do that, if what Cheney said is really true.

Obama pretty much nailed it in a speech in Austin this weekend:

Obama, speaking at a massive outdoor rally in Austin, Texas, said British
Prime Minister
Tony Blair's decision this week to withdraw 1,600 troops is a
recognition that Iraq's problems can't be solved militarily.

"Now if Tony Blair can understand that, then why can't George and Dick
Cheney understand that?"

"Now, keep in mind, this is the same guy that said we'd be greeted as
liberators, the same guy that said that we're in the last throes. I'm sure he
forecast sun today," Obama said to laughter from supporters holding campaign
signs over their heads to keep dry. "When Dick Cheney says it's a good thing,
you know that you've probably got some big problems."

Amen.

And, I swear, Cheney's flawed "the Democrats are doing what the terrorists want" logic is driving me up a freakin' wall. It's perhaps one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. In a conflict, Mr. Vice President, you do not define your own moves and tactics by what the enemy wants or does not want you to do!!! By that stupid logic, we would be puppets on a string, always doing whatever Al-Qaeda doesn't want us to do. And, pray tell, what if Al-Qaeda wants us to do ever turns out to actually be the right thing for the US to do, because, oh my!, they might make a miscalculation? Well, I guess Cheney would pass that opportunity by and not even consider whether that would be the right thing to do, simply on the basis that Al-Qaeda wants us to do it.

That's a damnfool stupid way to conduct a war, an occupation, or a foreign policy. Guess what, Dick? The US should do what is in the best interests of the US, and not give a damn about what the terrorists do or don't want. Who the hell cares what they want? Why do you care so much?

Jeesh.

This is what you get, America. This is what you get when you elect a guy who is obviously an idiot because "he'll have good advisors to help him make decisions," as conservatives told us in 2000. Well, Dick Cheney is an example of the kind of idiot you get when an idiot gets to pick his own advisors.

Duh.