THEY KEPT US SAFE

Writing for The Daily Dish, Chris Bodenner quoting Zachary Roth of Talking Points Memo, looks at Chaney's speech from earlier today:

"Zachary Roth points out "the most radical argument" of Cheney's "extremely radical" speech. Cheney:

And when [our enemies] see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don't stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for - our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity.

Rule of law and democratic debate, even years after the emergency of 9/11, are deemed weaknesses. Roth:

In other words, the very act of debating torture, or the process by which we try detainees, is encouraging terrorists to strike. The implication, of course, is that dissent of any kind is dangerous.

Then Bodenner offers up the zinger:

My translation of Cheney's speech: they hate us for our freedom, so let's just get rid of the freedom part and then we'll be safe.

Ya, that's pretty much the way it sounded to me. It was another part of the speech, though, that got under my skin. For what seems to be the millionth time, a spokesperson for the Bush administration trotted out "(We) kept us safe for 71/2 years." In this speech Chaney went even further. He outlined how the Clinton administration treated the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as a police matter and then we were hit at the Embassies in Africa, and the bombing of the Cole and so on. Then 9/11 happened and our heroes treated it as a reason to start two wars and...wait for it..."The homeland hasn't been hit again!" Did you catch the old switch-a-roo.

When it's the Clinton bunch, every time a terrorist struck, anywhere in the world, that counts against the Clinton policies. Even though the people who did the WTC bombing where caught, tried, convicted and are now serving their time right here in a prison in the good old USA, somehow Chaney and the other apologists for the Bush years can't see that Clinton kept us safe, here at home, from 1993 until 9/11/01. During Bush and Chaney's watch our forces have been attacked to the tune of over 4,200 dead and tens of thousands wounded. But no, we haven't been attacked here at home.

I'm really getting quite tired of these guys either thinking we're all too dumb to notice this stuff, or they believe it like the true believers they are. Some choice.