CIA Director Leon Panetta says former Vice President Dick Cheney's criticism of the Obama administration's approach to terrorism almost suggests "he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point."
Panetta told The New Yorker for an article in its June 22 issue that Cheney "smells some blood in the water" on the issue of national security.
Cheney has said in several interviews that he thinks Obama is making the U.S. less safe. He has been critical of Obama for ordering the closure of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, halting enhanced interrogations of suspected terrorists and reversing other Bush administration initiatives he says helped to prevent attacks on the U.S.
Last month the former vice president offered a withering critique of Obama's policies and a defense of the Bush administration on the same day that Obama made a major speech about national security.
Panetta said of Cheney's remarks: "It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point. I think that's dangerous politics."
The only area in which Panetta is mistaken is that there's no "almost" about it. Dick Cheney's power was always contingent on a frightened, traumatized population. As more information came out about how Cheney and his puppet frontman ignored screaming evidence that an attack was about to happen, thereby allowing almost 3000 people to die in the name of amassing political power, most Americans are sadder but wiser now. The idea of a former Vice President wanting this country to be attacked no longer seems as ridiculous as it did eight years ago. And with the PNAC neocons with whom Cheney is associated openly gleeful at the prospect of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prevailing in Iran, it's perfectly legitimate to ask ourselves with just whose side Dick Cheney is aligned.
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