Darth Cheney Strikes Again

So, in a recent "exit" interview, the gift that keeps on giving, Dick "Darth" Cheney, finally admitted what those of use who don't believe everything we read on the Drudge Report or hear from Hannity or Rush Limbaugh have known for years: All the reasons we were given in 2002 for going to war with Iraq were just excuses. They were going to invade Iraq anyway. Rove and Bush have been trying not to give away the game, saying that maybe we wouldn't have gone to war if the intelligence had been better. (Even though we actually had that better intelligence and they just ignored it).

But Cheney, the guy who, after all, is the one who went over to the CIA and stood over analysts' desks until they wrote what he wanted them to write, is blowing Rove's and Bush's story. In his interview Cheney just came right out and admitted that they would have went to war no matter what the intelligence said. Even if we'd know for sure he didn't have any biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons? Yep. Why? Because Saddam wanted them. Because Saddam had plans to make them again sometime in the future! Not because he had an active WMD program, mind you, but because he fantasized of having one again sometime, someday. That was enough, according to Cheney. Oh, and because, according to Cheney, Saddam was going to make chemical and biological agents, put them in perfume bottles, and send them to America! Oh no!

That not only sounds like the plot of a Batman movie, it was the plot of a Batman movie. You know, the first one, with Michael Keaton, cleverly named Batman. The Joker did put nerve agents in cosmetics and grooming products.

But get this: Cheney acts like we knew Saddam was planning to unleash this eeeevil yet unlikely plot when we went to war and it factored into the Bush regime's thinking at the time. But they didn't know. This little piece of high-school level revenge fantasy that Saddam had dreamed up wasn't discovered until after the invasion, and was only brought to light in the Iraq Study Group's report several years later.

So, even if we are to take seriously the idea that the Joker aka Saddam was really thinking about trying this B-movie terror plan, which would almost certainly fail for a whole host of reasons not worth going into here, and that his daydreaming about such a dumb plot actually constitutes a legitimate reason to invade a country, bomb the living shit out of its people, and send them on a path of chaos and civil war they are still struggling with six years later, it still doesn't matter, because despite Cheney's justification is anachronistic because we didn't know about this dipshit plan back in 2002!!!

Notwithstanding that if a bad guy wanting WMDs and fantasizing about having a WMD program someday is reason enough to invade his country and topple his regime, we'd be running all over the world invading countries at the drop of a hat. Hey, maybe that's why we invaded Iraq instead of North Korea! Saddam just wanted a nuclear program and dreamed about having one when he jerked himself off. Kim Jong-Il actually had one. So he didn't qualify. We only invade countries whose leaders wish to have a WMD program, apparently, not those that do. That'd also explain why we invaded Iraq but not Iran, right?

But, while his latest goalpost-moving justification is bullshit, Cheney has finally accidentally told the truth for perhaps the first time in his eight years in office. He has admitted the ultimate truth behind the disastrous military adventure in Iraq, one it took over half of the people of this country six years to grasp: The Bush regime and the neocons running it invaded Iraq because they wanted to. 9/11 and the "war on terror" was the excuse, not the reason. WMDs, yellow cake uranium, ties to Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin-Laden, those were just excuses too. The neocons didn't like Saddam, they wanted his oil, they wanted to go on a military/nation-building/democracy-creating/oil stealing adventure, they wanted to do it in Iraq, and they did. And Cheney has finally let the cat out of the bag.

He admitted we would have gone in even if we'd had the correct intelligence. What more do you need to know?

Oh, and by the way, he also admitted to personally sanctioning torture. Which, by our own rules, laws, and traditions, let alone international law, is a war crime. Very, very lucky for Cheney we haven't signed on to the International Criminal Court. But I do seriously wonder if Cheney will not be able to travel abroad anymore after he leaves office for fear of being arrested for war crimes, like Kissinger. I wouldn't be surprised. Maybe he'll be exempt because he's a former VP and no country will dare to piss off the US by arresting him, or maybe they won't want to take the chance of starting an international incident since they'd have to deal with his secret service detail (I don't think Kissinger has one, does he? Cheney certainly will as a former VP, right?)

It'll be interesting.