Thanks for Nothing Dick!

Thanks for NOTHING Dick!

Like most Americans that do not believe any of the spin coming out of the White House about why we went to war in Iraq, I have felt all along that we were being lied to and deceived about: the weapons of mass destruction, being greeted as liberator, mission accomplished, the oil will pay for the war, the insurgents are in their last throws, the Iraqi government will soon be able to take over, or the surge is working.

Usually we just feel that it is their hidden agenda and facts were being twisted to fit that agenda. The administration keeps faulting bad intelligence. But all of that logic is thrown right out when you find out that not only was the intelligence community providing good intelligence but the prior Bush administration understood this analysis and was even able to articulate all of the reasons that invading would have been and was a terrible idea.

I was sent this video last week and within days I started seeing it on various news medias, being debated on numerous MSNBC shows and being laughed at by people like John Stewart. The video is from a CSPAN interview back in 1994. It is eerie to watch it now and listen to Dick articulate exactly why it was a bad idea to invade Iraq. It is as if he is psychic as he gets every aspect of those arguments just perfect. It's as if he could see into the future and said it all as if empowered with the hindsight of how it was rather than speculating on how it might be.

If you are one of the three Americans who has not yet seen this video, take a moment to watch



If you are not totally outraged after watching this then you must be dead. After you take some time to cool down, sit back down and watch John Stewart's response. It will help with comic relief in this piece that he calls:
Note-Viacom has pulled their videos from the John Stewart Show and refuses to let us show it. I wonder why? Did they think that it was going to cut into their profits or maybe they just don't want the video seen too much. Hmmmm makes you wonder doesn't it?]

Dick Don't Know Dick About Dick!

Now if you are starting to wonder how this video suddenly appeared, don't even start down the conspiracy theory road. The following article appeared on the washingtonpost.com and clears it all up.

The Untold Story of the Cheney 'Quagmire' Video
By Mary Ann Akers Washingtonpost.com

When the C-SPAN producer toiling in obscurity last month reached for the tape, he had no clue how juicy a nugget he had unearthed. The tape was labeled simply, "Life and Career of Dick Cheney"; dated April 15, 1994.
When he found it in the archives, the producer was just looking for something mildly interesting to help fill the 12-hour Cheney marathon planned by C-SPAN 3. The "Life and Career of Dick Cheney," produced for C-SPAN's "American Profile" series, seemed like a good bet for the marathon; after all, those interviews were personality-based and less wonky, letting viewers get a real feel for Dick and his wife/political partner, Lynne.
But instead of love and marriage, the "Life and Career" tape offered up a much younger looking Cheney saying that a U.S. invasion to capture Baghdad and topple Saddam Hussein would be, well, a quagmire.
At the time of the interview 13 years ago, Cheney was the ex-defense secretary, camped out at the American Enterprise Institute and contemplating a run for president. Asked why he didn't think U.S. forces should have gone on to Baghdad during the first Persian Gulf War, he asked rhetorically, "How many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth?" He added, "It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq."
The now famous "quagmire" tape, which has gotten over half a million views on YouTube, may well have remained buried in the archives for another decade (and doesn't Cheney wish it had!) if it hadn't been for that one C-SPAN producer, an affable young Irishman named Emmanuel Touhey.
Touhey didn't have time to review the entire hour-long tape before airing it, so he had no idea he was about to spark a firestorm on the Internet. And, at first, no one seemed to notice.
The Cheney tape re-aired for the first time since 1994 on July 11, 2007. But it wasn't until C-SPAN aired the interview again on August 9 (on the same channel, at the same time) that the blogosphere noticed.
As far as we know, the Cheney remarks on Iraq were first noticed by the site Grand Theft Country. When it quickly became an Internet phenomenon, Touhey was surprised. He said people have been calling C-SPAN over the past week asking when the network plans to air the Cheney segment again. (It doesn't, for the record.)
"I was quietly pleased with myself that I'd found a gem, however by accident," said Touhey, who, after nine years with C-SPAN is leaving next week to become a producer for The Diane Rehm Show. "I'm gleeful just from the perspective that it's getting a lot of attention. Any time C-SPAN 3 gets a lot of attention, I'm happy."
Asked what changed the vice president's mind about invading Iraq between 1994 and 2003, Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said she was not authorized to comment.
She did, however, direct us to an interview that ABC News conducted with Cheney in February of this year in which Cheney was asked how his views had changed from 1991, when he also spoke of military action in Iraq as a "quagmire."
"Well, I stand by what I said in '91," Cheney told ABC. "But look what's happened since then -- we had 9/11."
Now, about that faceless voice in the Cheney "quagmire" video -- it belongs to Bruce Collins, the corporate vice president and general counsel of C-SPAN who held the same title when he interviewed the former defense secretary and future vice president way back in 1994.
Collins shared with us a funny anecdote about that interview.
When he showed up at Cheney's office, he said the future Veep asked, "How much time do you need -- one, two minutes?" Collins explained it was an hour-long interview.
Cheney grumbled that he hadn't planned on that much time. Collins said the interview was for C-SPAN's "American Profile" series, which would give the audience a chance to learn more about Dick Cheney the man, where he comes from, how he thinks, how he lives.
"You mean, touchy feely?" Cheney replied, according to Collins.
"This is an opportunity to go beyond policy," Collins recalled saying.
To which Cheney growled, "Well, you know I'm a policy kinda guy."
And there you have it: Dick Cheney is not a touchy-feely kinda guy.