Cheney's Warning

Richard Cohen has an article in the WaPo titled "What if Cheney's Right?" It is mainly focused on whether Cheney (which Cohen is NOT a fan of) is right that enhanced interrogations or "torture" worked and saved thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of American lives. I suppose we won't know for sure until the Obama administration releases the memos that Cheney wishes them too, and they show no indication that they will do that. Which pretty much says to me that the memos DO say American lives were saved.

But Cohen's article got me to thinking about other things that Cheney may be right about and that the media seem to be glossing over.

This man was our Vice President and according to the media, he wielded a great deal of power. Yet when he goes on national TV saying that Pres. Obama has made the country more vulnerable, no one blinks an eye. Remember, this man is never going to run for President. He has no political reason for sounding an alarm. Critics have said he is hurting the GOP image, but what if keeping the American people safe is more important than "image" to him?

"If I don't speak out, then where do we find ourselves? ... Then the critics have free run, and there isn't anybody there on the other side to tell the truth," Cheney said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Agree or disagree with how Bush handled keeping our country safe after 9-11, but you can't argue against the fact that he did indeed keep us safe.

Cheney told CNN's John King how:

I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoyed of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11," Cheney insisted. "I think that's a great success story. It was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles.""President Obama campaigned against it all across the country." Cheney continued. "And now he is making some choices that in my mind will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack."

One can dismiss Cheney all they wish, but what if he is right? If we are attacked again Cheney will always be able to say that he warned us. That he warned the Obama administration.