Dick Cheney Promotes His New Memoir "In My Time"

Cheney’s Tell-All Book Attacks Powell, Condoleezza Rice

Dick Cheney in 1994 Said Invading Baghdad Would've Created Quagmire



Dick Cheney on the Today Show August 30, 2011



Dick Cheney Interview Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been out recently promoting his new memoir "In My Time."  It's a book where he's candid in his attacks concerning a number of officials in the Bush administration.  Two different Bush administration officials that Cheney criticized in his book were former Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.  Cheney contended that Colin Powell tried to undermine Bush by privately expressing doubts about the War.  Cheney even admits that he took steps to have Powell removed as Secretary of State after Bush won his re-election bid in 2004.  Powell didn't serve for a second term under that same post.  I find it intriguing how Cheney criticizes Powell over expressing doubts over the Iraq War.  I have posted a YouTube clip where Cheney admitted in an interview on April 15, 1994 where it wouldn't have been a good idea if U.S. forces had removed Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War in 1991.  He said if Saddam had been removed it would've been a quagmire for Iraq because who would replace Saddam?  Then Cheney supposedly thought it was the "right" idea to remove Saddam several years later.  Cheney was Secretary of Defense during the first Iraq War so he knew the intelligence.  It's not like Cheney was ignorant back in the early 90's and then he learned the world would be far better off without Saddam.  He was in charge of the Defense department. 

Cheney criticizes Rice in his book saying she was too naieve in her negotiations with North Korea over nuclear weapons.  He also criticized former CIA Chief George Tenet, who resigned from the post in August 2004 when the "going got tough."  He claimed that was unfair to the president.  In another portion of his book, he mentioned he urged the former president to bomb a suspected nuclear reactor site in Syria in 2007.  Cheney urged Bush to "take a military reaction against the nuclear reactor" which Israel attacked a short time later.  Bush declined to do so in favor of more of a diplomatic approach.

Dick Cheney also defended the use of harsh interrogation techniques for the prisoners of Gitmo at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  He told Rush Limbaugh they were essential in extracting the information needed to prevent another terrorist attack.  As much as I agree with using interrogation techniques to those prisoners of war caught on the battlefield in Afghanistan, there's an important question that needs to be asked concerning the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba?  Why didn't the Bush administration immediately create military tribunals to try those who fought in the battlefield in Afghanistan?  Why do we allow Gitmo to continue existing?  When World War II ended in 1945, it wasn't too much later that military tribunals were created in Nuremberg in 1946 to try the enemies of World War II.  We didn't keep those prisoners confined for years on end.  We gave them a military tribunal and it was done quickly.  It's almost been ten years since 9/11 and we still have some of the same prisoners of war dating back to the war in Afghanistan in 2001.  They should've already been tried.  I have another question for Mr. Cheney in regards to both of the wars in the Middle East.  Why didn't you win those wars before Bush left office?  Why did you hand over those wars to President Obama?  You said it was crucially important that we win the war in Iraq.  Yet the job was unfinished when you left office.  On top of that you have the audacity to criticize President Obama in how he was dithering about adding troops in Afghanistan in 2009.  Why?  You all failed to finish these wars when you left office.  I'm not a fan of president Obama, but you don't have a right to criticize Obama's handling of the wars when you under the Bush administration kept the wars lingering.  That's hypocritical.  However, it's part of the game you all play. 

For the last few days this week the former vice president has made several appearances on many media outlets such as the Today show on NBC, Sean Hannity on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh on his EIB radio program.  Cheney will undoubtedly make great money from his book promotion.