Cheney Believes War Is Not the People’s Business
Back in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s worst days when he was grappling with the Vietnam quagmire and raucous anti-war protests at home, he said that in the big decisions about war and peace: “The people should be in on the take offs as well as the landings.”
Tell that to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, who apparently couldn’t care less what Americans think - except every four years at election time.
Cheney made that clear in an intriguing interview with ABC News on his recent Middle East trip. Despite the difficulties surrounding the unprovoked U.S. invasion of Iraq five years ago, Cheney insisted, “It was the right thing to do.”
When the interviewer told him that two-thirds of Americans say the war in Iraq is not worth fighting, Cheney scoffed. The administration would not be “blown off course by the fluctuations in public opinion polls,” he vowed.
Cheney went on to claim that Abraham Lincoln would never have succeeded in the Civil War if he had paid attention to polls. White House press secretary Dana Perino later indicated that Bush was on the same page.
Asked about Cheney’s remarks to ABC, Perino said the Bush administration realizes its popularity polls are very low (30 percent) “but largely that’s because of people being unhappy about the war, about the fact that it has gone on five years … and we’re aware of that.She added that both Bush and Cheney have long believed the reason they are leaders is because they do “not chase popularity polls but … hold themselves to a standard that requires people not to like them.”
She went on to explain that the administration would like people to support the president’s decisions but that such a hope is “unrealistic” in time of war. “And while we’re not able to change public opinion, we have to follow a principle,” she said, “and stand on principle.”
Reminded that she was saying, in effect, that the people had no say about the war, Perino replied that they have “input” every
four years, adding: “And that’s the way our system is set up.”
As long as Congress cowers sheep-like and does not retrieve its constitutional power to declare war, an imperial Bush-style presidency will prevail.
The war against Iraq was built on falsehoods - weapons of mass destruction that did not exist and ties to al-Qaida that were a fantasy. The administration used these phony rationales to scare the American people into fearing a threat from a third-world country.
Since the administration’s original propaganda has now been revealed to be bogus, Bush has resumed his claim that it was necessary to rid the world of a tyrant, Saddam Hussein - a friend of the U.S., incidentally, in earlier times.
His aides remain loyal to their chant that Iraq is “the central front in the war on terrorism.”
Any port in a storm seems to be the strategy of White House spin-masters.
Determined to ignore the reality that the war is a debacle and the killing will go on, Bush last year came up with the “surge” theory of dispatching 30,000 more troops to Iraq in hopes of bringing Iraqi submission.
There has been a lessening of violence in Iraq. Could it be that there are fewer attacks on American troops because we are paying huge sums of money to Sunni Iraqis to persuade them to stop attacking Americans and instead go after al-Qaida?
Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will leave Baghdad in May to report to Bush and Congress on the status of the war and talk about a timetable for a drawdown of more troops - or even propose a pause in withdrawals.
Next November, the American voters will decide on a new president. Before then, reporters will be remiss if they fail to nail the candidates on whether the views of the people on questions of war and peace will count with them.
–Helen Thomas
© 2008 The Salt Lake Tribune
It’s hard to be in on the take-offs and landings when cheney hijacked the plane.
To answer Perino, I would like to think that we have some say in this gov’t more frequently than just every four years. I have been writing to my representatives very often, signing petitions, urging impeachment, etc.
Keep up the good work Helen.
I don’t understand this. ALL Americans fully support the war. As long as they all continue to pay taxes they all support the war. You cannot claim to be ‘anti-war’ as long as you continue to financially support the war. I pay my taxes. I may not like the war but I obviously support it. And if you are paying your taxes you support the war. So shut up, suck it up, and go shopping.
The reason Cheney and Bush believe they can conduct various war on terror actions without regard to public opinion is that they have managed to endrun around two important priciples. First of all, we should not be doing any war without a Declaration of War by Congress. That’s how the constitution was supposed to work, and those in the “strict constructionist” camp ought to be yelling this the most loudly. (But they won’t, because they believe strict construction should only be used against citizens–not FOR citizens.)
Secondly, war is nobody’s business in Cheney’s eyes because, so far, no one is clearly paying the financial cost. The costs are on the credit card for our kids to sort out later. If we (properly) had had tax increases to pay for the WoT in real time, 1) it would be everybody’s business, and 2) It would already either be “won” or “called off” as nonsense. Bush and Cheney being allowed to somehow print money for this fiasco is also a constitutional travesty that would make our founders sick.
Cheney’s arrogant “So?” indicates where these people are on “democracy” as relevant to their main goals–dominating the middle east and the world, including taking control of OIL reserves. There’s 2.3 trillion dollars of profit to be had in ONE oil field in eastern Iraq alone. “So?” means, “So what? The public is challenging me? Irrelevant.” This is then spun by Ferrino etc. into “principles” and false analogies with Lincoln.
First of all the concensus of the Americans that oppose this deadly war is not a poll, it is a fact. Polls are guessing games that may or may not be close to the facts. In Cheney’s arrogance he misjudges the people for whom he works, our opinions carry a lot more weight than he might think. Just ask the people of Vermont when he attemps to visit there. Which by the way, is a grand statement of how these ‘polls’ really work. Helen, you gutsy gal, we love you, the last of the real time journalists. Keep right on telling it like it is.
Since when did Dana Perino become an expert in Political Science??
Perino says they have “input” every four years. That consists of Republican votes “inputted” to the voting machines.
It is time for a little “output” which means throwing the whole bunch of criminals out permanently.
Perino:”we stand on principle”. I think she meant, we stand with our princiPALS!
Bush and Cheney actually do care very deeply about polls. They constantly informally poll Bush’s base — the corporate elite, with extra votes by those in the defense and oil industries — and use that information to determine whether they are going in the right direction.
I LOVE YOU, HELEN THOMAS ! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing what you do. You are the essence of sanity in these insane times. If only half the so called journalists could possess your intelligence and integrity, we would not be in the mess we are today. Don’t ever stop - we need you !
Headline sez: “Cheney Believes War Is Not the People’s Business”
Except for the bleeding part.
Also,
Cheney believes government is not the people’s business.
kernel,
I do like your take on appropriate definitions for “input” and “output” in the context of Dana Perino’s comments.
First of all, Helen Thomas is the most perfect woman ever born, except for Rita Mae Brown, who is also right about everything.
But I wonder if we focus too much on the Bush crew. They didn’t form an illegal central bank. They didn’t start the drug laws in 1914. They are not members of the AMA. There were a lot of democrats serving in congress these last thirty odd years. And for me - a lot of those democrats need to go - just as most incumbent republicans need to go. We should stop electing people based on image. Hillary’s or anyone elses false image.
When I was born, all healthcare companies were non-profit - and we were very poor - dad taught school. But I had healthcare and it worked. Now we are privatizing everything in sight including water and air and we elect untreated alcoholics with histories of cocaine trouble. We better figure out how we got there - and remember this didn’t start just 30- odd years ago - it began a lot earlier than that.
oh, geez…
what the hell does cheney know?
after about six years as vice president, he didn’t even know he was part of the executive branch.
and still, he keeps his job.
Congress,
are you listening?
national security presidential directive no. 51
@ n3140f:
“we elect untreated alcoholics with histories of cocaine trouble.”
bush and cheney were not elected.
they lost by nearly 500,000 votes.
they were judicially selected.
some democracy, huh?
“She added that both Bush and Cheney have long believed the reason they are leaders is because they do “not chase popularity polls but … hold themselves to a standard that requires people not to like them.”
We the People are the leaders. They are employees about to be fired for not following directions and making a fine mess of things.
A couple of remarks on the article and the discussion so far.
The cause of the recently diminished violence in U.S. occupied Iraq is very simple: last summer, the Mahdi army of Moktada al Sadr agreed to a cease-fire called up by Moktada. That such is the cause, and not Boy George’s surge (which the U.S. media, including NPR, never tires of describing and praising as successful) is now becoming manifest, for as soon as at least some contingents of that army started activating their weapons again, the level of violence increased. Even the Green Zone and the sprawling U.S. embassy are now being shelled daily.
The presupposition of the discussion is that the U.S. is a functioning democracy. Unfortunately, such is no longer the case. It is at best an oligarchy. Voting at the federal level is merely an exercise conducted to placate the gullible masses, a piece of very expensive and wasteful political histrionics.
The US has never been a democracy. The founding fathers were rich men, many of them slaveholders, who were afraid of democracy. The electoral college was set up to ensure that only the wealthy could vote for President.
There are towns in New England that are democracies at that level of government. There are non-profit organizations that function as democracies. That is pretty much it.
I’d like to grant Cheney a take-off. The method of propulsion will be my right foot.
Anybody remember the Gulf of Tonkin incident? Now why did I bring that up?
“To answer Perino, I would like to think that we have some say in this gov’t more frequently than just every four years. I have been writing to my representatives very often, signing petitions, urging impeachment, etc.”
Wow. You _really_ think that makes a tinker’s damn worth of difference (unless you’ve got serious megabucks to donate to politicians, maybe)? How quaint. Heck, I “would like to think” we have some real say in what happens, too. I also “would like to think” there is a Heaven for kittens. But that doesn’t make it so.
Cheney’s arrogant contempt for democracy (with full support of Bush) clearly shows that this administration believes in an imperial presidency —which is to say that they believe in EMPIRE rather than democracy.
In fact, Helen Thomas hits the nail right on the head when she says, “So long as Congress cowers sheep-like and does not retrieve its (democratic) constitutional power to declare war, an imperial Bush-style presidency will prevail.”
So now we are getting to the meat of the matter:
1. Bush and Cheney believe and act as if ‘our’ government is an EMPIRE rather than a democracy.
2. Congress has no guts and accedes to ‘our’ government being run as an EMPIRE rather than a democracy.
3. The three gutless presidential contenders (pretenders) also fully accede to ‘our’ government being run as a virtual EMPIRE rather than a democracy —- and worse yet, they will not even dare to whisper the **cking word EMPIRE, or warn the people that we are trapped in the belly on an EMPIRE — because they are entirely happy with the prospect of being the next emperor.
Now let’s just continue along the courageous and truth-telling path that Helen Thomas has opened up for our SERIOUS THOUGHT:
1. Why is it so obvious that arrogant, contemptuous EMPIRE boldly shouts down democracy —- without any objections being raised by the Congress, the presidential candidates, or the MSM?
2. If, as Helen Thomas notes, bold and boastful non-democratic EMPIRE is as plain and public to see as Cheney’s obnoxious insult to democracy when he sneers, “SO?”, then why is the word EMPIRE not even discussed by anyone in the ruling political and media classes?
3. If ‘our’ country has metastasized from a functional democracy into a cancerous virtual EMPIRE, then is any current or future government, which breaths no word of EMPIRE to the people, regardless of party, any more than a ‘Vichy’ facade of real government, and nothing more than the kind of fraud government that posed as a front for the Nazi EMPIRE in occupied France?
Yes, Helen Thomas is offended and disgusted by the arrogance of “imperial power” that flips-off democracy and citizens, and she brings up very compelling, obvious, and public proof that Cheney and Bush are both acting as petty EMPERORS. But she also compellingly demonstrates that this secret lie of accepting EMPIRE (instead of fighting for democracy) is consciously and absolutely accepted by Congress, the media, and ALL the presidential candidates.
Lastly, we might want to consider what form or font of hidden power the virtual EMPIRE that runs ‘our’ country, launches imperialist oil-wars, spies on citizens, loots the economy, and does all this with absolute impunity and complicity by the gutless ‘Vichy’ pawns who pose as ‘our leaders’ can possible be based on?
Could it be that we are facing a modern ‘corporatist (fascist) EMPIRE’ that is much more sophisticated in its take-over of ‘our’ country than the NAZI EMPIRE was in taking-over and occupying France and setting up a primitive single-party ‘Vichy’ government?
One thing is for sure. There will be only one ‘democracy advocate’ in the presidential campaign who has the courage to share with citizens the type of truth that Helen Thomas raises about arrogant, pompous, emperors and vice emperors, about imperial war power, and about EMPIRE abroad and at home. The ‘democracy advocate’ who will dare to raise and confront EMPIRE is Ralph Nader —- all the rest will just go along with EMPIRE, without whispering its name.
As Hannah Arendt presciently warned decades ago, when the NAZI EMPIRE was hiding behind the facade of ‘Vichy France’ (which the US first recognized as a valid government), “EMPIRE abroad (always) entails tyranny at home.”
Ideologists have no need for public input, because they think that they have perfectly insight and and infallible goals.
George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others planned the Iraq invasion in the first two weeks they were in office as a “demonstration model” of U.S. military might. This was based on“neo-conservative” ideology, calling for U.S. world military domination to protect our status as the sole remaining superpower. (Who could question that?)
Paul O’Neill, Bush’s first Secretary of the Treasury, and member of the National Security Council, attended the first two NSC meetings under Bush. In an exceptionally rare insight into the secretive workings of the Bush administration, he described those two meetings in detail. The decision to invade Iraq was made at the second meeting, on Thursday, February 1, 2001. All they needed was an excuse. The meeting ended with Bush saying, “Fine. Go find me a way to do this.”
The people were never a part of this. Who needs feedback, when he has no need to think, but merely act on fixed ideology?
No surprise — very consistent: “If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator” _ G.W.Bush Dec 2000. He wasn’t joking.
Cheney knows he does not need any input from the hoi polloi to figure out how to transfer taxpayer money to Halliburton and his other cronies. He is a world class expert in that.
” kent shaw March 27th, 2008 11:13 am
I don’t understand this. ALL Americans fully support the war. As long as they all continue to pay taxes they all support the war. …”
NOT NECESSARILY true. People who earn incomes as [employees] have the taxes withdrawn before they receive their paychecks. They don’t pay the taxes; they are withdrawn by other parties.
What, should all such-employed citizens and non-citizen residents quit their jobs and find themselves without any income, losing home, shelter, food, etc., just to please people like kent shaw enough so that he then sees these people as not supporting the war? I DO NOT THINK SO.
Of course when such-employed people are employed in MIC corporations, now these people profit from the wars, for their employers very directly do. But people employed by most businesses in the country are not working for war-profiteering employers.
There’s also a movement based on withholding the portion of income taxes that would otherwise go to the war and/or military budget of the U.S. govt. It’s apparently legal to withhold this portion, so it’s just a question of concerned income-earners finding out how to do the same and then doing it. All other income taxe will be withdrawn before the paychecks are received.
There’s a U.S. citizen, an engineer, who took a job with I believe McDonald Douglas, perhaps in British Columbia, but some Canadian province anyway, and when he learned that the corporation was getting into war-profiteering, he quit the job. There’ve been some articles published on the Web about his decision and action.
McCain’s speech on foreign policy was an example of trying to have it both ways. How can he not support the way Bush is handling the war, then turn around and say he approves of his goals. What goals are those?
Michael Ware, the correspondent in Iraq gave the lie to what Bush is saying about Al Queda being the group doing the most killing. On the contrary, it is the Iraqi insurgents who are doing the fighting.
Everything coming out of Washington is a crock, and most of Americans think they are fighting bin Laden over there.
Good for Helen Thomas. She’s been around DC long enough to know the truth and report it, much to Bush’s chagrin.
Bush and Cheney regard themselves and their class as superior in value to all other people. American people are inferior to them, Iraqis, and US soldiers.
Inferior people go and fight wars, not Bush and Cheney. They go fishing and hunting–not because they have to, but because its a way for them to commit violence and think they are big tough predators instead of weakling humans with tools.
” satr9prodxns March 27th, 2008 12:44 pm
oh, geez…
what the hell does cheney know?”
WELL, apparently more than we do, about the real underworkings, whatever you wish to call them. Also about hell; maybe.
“ezeflyer March 27th, 2008 12:57 pm
…
We the People are the leaders. They are employees about to be fired for not following directions and making a fine mess of things.”
THEY’RE what, about to be fired; you mean like impeached? Or do you mean that the end of their second term is nearing and they’ll no longer be in office, unless they pull off some “stunt” to force their continuation in office?
If you mean that they’ll be replaced due to the elections in Nov., and assuming they don’t pull off the “stunt” to remain in office, then NO, they’re not going to be fired; only the max. term limit will have concluded.
I agree with EveningLand’s post, quite fully.
” mirf59 March 27th, 2008 1:49 pm
I’d like to grant Cheney a take-off. The method of propulsion will be my right foot.”
If possible, then might try tying him to a missile aimed for outer space and timed for self-explosion; or else have the latter remotely controlled, to make sure the missile doesn’t accidentally blow up before it reaches outer space.
If you have a large missile, then Bush and others could also be strapped to the thing, along with Cheney. “The more the merrier”, has been often said, in some circumstances; and this one would be such case.
I also agree with sin_agua’s post. Contacting representatives who are and have long been criminals and traitors is a sure bet matter in terms of non-success; well, unless what’s requested is also criminal and with plenty of bucks attached.
” amacd March 27th, 2008 3:14 pm
Cheney’s arrogant contempt for democracy (with full support of Bush) clearly shows that this administration believes in an imperial presidency —which is to say that they believe in EMPIRE rather than democracy.”
Do PNAC and Zbigniew Brzezinski’s “Grand Chessboard” ring a bell by any chance? They are entirely about western imperialism, and waged against the whole world here.
Take away the Money - it is the only way - they cannot jail the whole population. Congress must be Recalled and a new one elected based on non-corporate principles.
I can’t believe I’m going to say it, but I think I hate Perino more than I hated Snow.
Few people deserve a long, slow, painful death.
Cheney is top of that list.
We have watched as Cheney/Bush have taken enough rope
and now that they have painted themselves into the corner of Iraq
the only way out for them is through a trap door.
Wait a minute now, We are responsible not them. We the people have no one to blame but ourselves. Get it,” America is only you and me”. (Walt Whitman)
The only thing larger than the pro-war spin the Corporate Media put out is Cheney’s egomania. Hows does a sane man deals with so warped a perspective — he doesn’t — it takes a sociopath to feel no shame.
The inmates are in charge of the hospital…
Gary
If I were a member of the press corp I would convince all of my fellow reporters to carry a child’s whirlygig to the meetings to hold up everytime the current spokesperson (man or woman) starts spinning. The hot air would certainly give the whirlygigs a workout. If done enough times perhaps this administration would get the ‘idea’ that their spin is useless, but then maybe not as they don’t listen to public opinion…..
Oil is only a payoff for the West’s efforts at providing PROXY COMBATANTS for Israel–for protecting Israel from expanding, encircling Islamic Arabism; a Jewish nation-state having supporters throughout the West willing to destroy the entirety of Western civilization for Israel’s sake. That’s the gut-wrenching truth of why Western democracies are sacrificing blood and treasury in the Middle East; especially the U.S., which has enough off-shore and on-land oil reserves to last 300 years at her present rate of consumption, and which reserves were PURPOSELY capped and/or not drilled because Israel’s supporters poured millions of dollars into ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT groups’ coffers, to work at keeping America from oil/energy independence and tied to Israel’s interests in the Middle East. That’s the truth you’ll NEVER see nor hear reported in Western mainstream news media, because Israel’s supporters control what’s fit to be said or printed about why the West wars with Islamic Arabism.
Hi ~Annabelle~ I believe the problem is not the reporters, they just can’t get what they wish to report printed.
With the proven courage of Dick Cheney and his track record of predictions……..its a wonder anyone notices when he speaks any more.
Mother told me to always find something nice to say about people, so I’m sure, sometime in the far distant past he was right about one thing. Surely?
Helen knows — she had front row!